The first, sharp cracks of dawn bled a pale amber light through the towering stained-glass windows of the throne room. Cyra was nervously pacing the polished marble floor, her heavy boots clicking rhythmically against the stone. The atmosphere inside the vast hall was cold and still, smelling faintly of lingering incense and the crisp morning air filtering through the high pillars.
After she had finally broken the silence last night and told Areia about Dan's insane goal to climb the Tower of Devbatuhç, the white-haired knight had simply vanished. Cyra wasn't entirely sure if it was a high-level teleportation spell or just a show of such impossible, blinding speed that her beastkin eyes couldn't track it, but Areia hadn't stayed in that bedroom for a single second longer. Yet, deep down, a gut instinct told Cyra that Areia hadn't left the beast kingdom just yet.
"Cyra? Are you okay?"
A calm, deeply worried voice cut through the cavernous quiet of the room. Cyra spun around slowly, her silver ears twitching. Queen Veronica was walking toward her from across the hall, flanked closely by Haki, whose hand rested lazily on the hilt of the long sword strapped to her hip. The morning sun caught the silver of Veronica's crown, casting sharp reflections across the stone walls.
No need to panic, Cyra thought bitterly to herself, forcing her racing heart to steady. They aren't dead yet. It's all good. I can still change the future. I won't let that nightmare happen.
"You screamed in the middle of the night," Veronica muttered, her silver eyes shifting toward the floor as she stopped a few paces away. "We wanted to help, but... a terrifyingly powerful sealing magic was placed on your door. Not even Thranduil's highest dispelling chants could break it. We eventually assumed you just desperately wanted to be left alone, so we withdrew."
It wasn't an understatement to say that the relationship between Veronica and Cyra had always been incredibly strained. However, Veronica had secretly hoped the fractured bonds were finally mending, even if it was just one painful millimeter at a time. After all, during the absolute chaos in the courtyard a week ago when Carl attacked, Cyra had instinctively called her "Mum" for the very first time in her entire life. The word had replayed in Veronica's mind every single day since.
Cyra looked around the massive throne room, her gaze darting toward the stone pillars, the banners—anywhere except directly at where her mother was standing. "Mum... I—" she began, her throat tightening, but she was abruptly cut off.
"When you screamed your bloody head off last night, I had naturally assumed the absolute worst," Thranduil smiled, his smooth elf voice echoing as he strolled casually into the throne room. "But seeing you standing tall and fully dressed, I suppose everything is perfectly fine."
"Ouch! Arghhh!!! Get off me! I literally can't breathe!!!"
Thranduil's frantic, muffled voice exploded into the room as Cyra suddenly launched herself across the floor like a rocket, attaching herself directly to his face. The sheer, desperate force of her tackle knocked the slender elf completely off his feet, sending him crashing backward right into Antrea, who was walking just behind him.
Ever since her horrific ordeal with the Utopian angels, the moment Antrea woke up, she had completely reverted back to the incredibly timid, fragile self she was when she first joined their party. Looking thoroughly panicked, the black-winged girl desperately held Thranduil up from the floor, her own wings fluttering weakly as Cyra kept hugging the elf's head with a vice-like grip, sobbing silently.
"It is... it's just so refreshing seeing you in one piece!" Cyra cried into his robes, her tail sweeping the floor in a frantic blur.
"Hey! Don't go saying terrifying, ominous stuff like that!" Thranduil groaned, forcefully prying her arms away from his face so he could finally gasp for air. He dusted off his robes, looking at her with a mix of fond exasperation and genuine worry. "Why on earth wouldn't I be in one piece?!"
The vast throne room went dead still as an immense, suffocating pressure tore through the air, causing the heavy tapestries along the walls to stiffen. The soft click-clack of high-heeled leather boots was barely audible against the polished marble floor as Areia glided into the hall. Ignoring everyone, she walked right past the gathered crowd and took a silent seat near a towering arched window, her pale face bathed in the golden hue of the rising sun.
The entire group stared at her in absolute, tense confusion.
"Just leave her be," Cyra muttered, her shoulders dropping. "I told her about Dan."
"What? Why? Dan explicitly said—" Thranduil began, his elegant elf features tightening with worry.
"To hell with what Dan said," Cyra growled, releasing her grip on Thranduil's robes and stepping down into the center of the room. Her gold eyes grew deadly serious. "I'm sure you're all confused as to why I called a sudden emergency meeting this morning."
The party watched Cyra carefully as she paced the marble floor, the morning light casting long shadows behind her.
"I think it's finally time we help Dan out of his mind," Cyra said, a small, grim smile playing on her lips. "Everyone find a comfortable position. This might take a while."
After Cyra meticulously laid out the terrifying details of her latest revelation—vividly describing the apocalypse she had witnessed in her nightmare—the room fell into a heavy, analytical silence.
"So... according to what you've come up with," Thranduil asked slowly, rubbing his chin as he leaned against a stone pillar, "if we just passively sit here and let Dan come out of the Tower of Devbatuhç on his own accord... that person won't be the Dan we know anymore?"
"Precisely," Cyra nodded firmly.
"C-correct me if I'm w-wrong," Antrea stammered from behind Thranduil, her black wings twitching nervously. "Hadn't it already been like a week since he left? For all we know, he could be out of the Tower and wandering somewhere else entirely right about now."
"Well, that too is a definite possibility, but I've already scrapped that idea," Cyra explained, crossing her arms. "Lilly and Croc are still here in the kingdom. Dan promised to take Lilly back to her home, and knowing Dan, he wouldn't just bail on her or any of us just to go have fun somewhere else. If he ever successfully leaves that tower, this kingdom is the very first place he will come."
"Then what if he's already approaching the borders right now?" Queen Veronica asked, her silver tail swishing upanxiously against her royal robes.
"Should we preemptively evacuate the citizens just in case?" Haki added, her blindfolded face turning toward Cyra.
Cyra shook her head. "Antrea, do you feel any immense energy approaching?" she asked.
At her name being called, the startled angel girl jumped, instantly burying her face deep within her black wings before screaming out a panicked, "No!"
"You see, Antrea is the one closest to Dan in terms of raw power," Cyra said, her eyes shifting subtly toward the window where Areia sat at the edge of the room. The white-haired knight gave off a cold feeling like she wasn't even listening, but they all knew very well she was soaking up every single piece of information like a sponge. "Well, if Antrea can't sense anything, it means Dan isn't approaching just yet. I know it's not a lot to go on, but we just have to assume he hasn't left the tower."
"Look... the gate to this tower is an ancient tree, right?" Haki said slowly, her voice flat and pragmatic. "Why don't we just destroy the tree? I mean, he's only one boy. If we permanently trap him in that isolated realm, wouldn't it solve so many of our problems at once?"
"I dare you to repeat those words."
Areia's voice didn't just sound in the room—it rang violently into their minds like a psychic shockwave. Before anyone could even blink, Areia was suddenly standing face-to-face with Haki, her purple eyes flashing with a terrifying, murderous intent. The blindfolded beastkin warrior didn't flinch, but she didn't respond either, the air between them turning to absolute ice.
"Like I thought," Areia concluded coldly. Turning on her heel, she proceeded to march straight toward the massive double doors to leave the room.
Cyra ran after her, her boots skidding on the marble. "Areia, wait!" she yelled desperately. "Please don't go off on your own! We're a team, we can—"
Cyra stopped instantly, the words catching in her throat.
Areia had paused and turned around. She was staring back at the hero with deeply teary, trembling eyes.
"I know... I know, you don't need to say anything," Areia said slowly, her voice wavering in a way none of them had ever heard before. "Even after telling me about what Dan went to do, you conveniently left the exact location of the tower out of your story just so I wouldn't go there myself." A hot tear finally spilled over her cheek. "At this point, I'm completely at your mercy, You've managed to make me helpless" she whispered.
Areia's voice was breaking badly now, the raw emotion cracking her usual stoic facade. "I just... I absolutely hate when you all treat Dan like a ticking bomb that's ready to go off!" she snapped furiously.
And with a violent distortion of air, she completely vanished from sight.
"Cyra, are you really considering that?" Thranduil asked, his voice low and heavy as he stepped closer into the center of the morning-lit throne room.
"Yes," Cyra replied firmly. She turned around to face them, her golden beastkin eyes burning with a hard, unyielding resolve. "As much as I absolutely hate to admit it... Dan is only one boy. Surely he cannot be worth the literal lives of everyone standing in this room, or the rest of this world. My very first thought last night was trapping Dan in that tower realm forever. But I think we have another alternative."
"Well then," Haki smiled smoothly from behind her blindfold, a dangerous aura of curiosity settling around her. "Let's hear it."
......
Croc hummed a light, rhythmic tune under her breath as she navigated the thick, tangled cluster of the forest with total ease. She was holding a wooden bait bucket in one hand and a large, sturdy fishing rod over her shoulder. Her short black hair was a wild, cascading mess—a messy, untamed look common to reptile beastkins of her tribe. Behind her, her massive, scaly alligator-like tail lashed against the undergrowth with heavy, rhythmic thuds, packing enough raw force to easily knock down an entire tree if she wasn't careful.
After staying in the beast kingdom for the past few weeks, she was genuinely starting to feel right at home. She had finally learned hobbies aside from swinging her giant battleaxe, and she had even found friends other than Dan.
Making a sharp right turn, she followed a familiar, narrow footpath that led straight to her favorite secluded fishing spot. The localized lake was as perfectly clear as the morning sky, and the fish were always incredibly plentiful. The weather today was nice, quiet, and peaceful—the absolute perfect way to pass the time.
Still, a pang of loneliness hit her chest. Dan hadn't called for her very often since they arrived here, and she felt deeply saddened by his sudden distance. But deep down, she knew exactly what he was doing: he was preparing to leave her behind in this kingdom for her own safety. She didn't necessarily mind the kingdom itself, but according to his stubborn logic, a brutal battlefield wasn't a place for a child. It angered her greatly whenever he said it; she desperately wanted him to look at her like a woman, but it felt entirely impossible with a dense guy like Dan.
Croc abruptly stopped in her tracks as she finally reached the clearing where the lake lay.
The water was beautiful as ever, reflecting the silver dawn light. But something was completely amiss. Ever since she had started fishing here, she hadn't seen a single soul. Yet right now, sitting quietly on a large, smooth rock at the very bank of the lake, was a girl.
Her hair was a stark, pristine white that stood out vividly against the green foliage, looking like a fallen cloud. She was stripped down completely to her undergarments, her heavy leather and steel armor packed neatly in a pile to her side. The girl was staring intently into the still water, not blinking or moving a single millimeter.
Croc blinked her reptile eyes, assessing the stranger. As far as she could tell, the white-haired girl looked incredibly, shockingly scrawny—by her own warrior standards, at least.
Croc aggressively set down her wooden bait bucket, rolled up her sleeves with a sharp tug, and plucked a fat wriggling bait from the dirt. She pierced it onto the sharp hook and tossed the line into the river with a practiced flick of her wrist.
It didn't take long for something to aggressively tug at the string. Kicking into autopilot, Croc pulled out a large, glittering brass fish and tossed it splashing into the bucket. She repeated the process with practiced ease, tossing the hook right back into the lake. She desperately tried to keep her mind off things, but with the white-haired girl sitting right there on the rock, it was physically impossible. Croc already had a sneaking suspicion of exactly who she was, but she couldn't quite confirm it just yet.
Her slitted reptile eyes kept darting suspiciously toward the girl. If she truly was Dan's legendary vanguard knight, how on earth was she so incredibly small? Croc pondered, furrowing her brow. Whenever Dan had spoken of her in the past, Croc had naturally assumed the woman would be someone as tall as Haki and at least half as buff as Cyra. But the creature currently sitting on that rock clearly didn't fit the massive, intimidating mental picture she had painted of Dan's supposed knight.
Then, there was the glaring fact that she already absolutely hated the girl.
Even without being there during their past travels, this white-haired stranger had somehow managed to hoodwink Dan all to herself. She was probably the biggest, most frustrating reason Dan would never look at Croc as a woman. Croc growled softly under her breath, her grip tightening around her fishing rod. The reinforced steel handle groaned and creaked violently under her sudden spike of raw pressure. She completely ignored the frantic tugging on her fishing line, choosing instead to stare openly and aggressively at Areia.
The girl on the rock had suddenly stood up in her undergarments. She was tilting her head back, openly sniffing the morning air as if she were desperately trying to pick up a specific scent.
Croc's gaze drifted downward. She stared at her own chest, and then critically compared it to Areia's.
Maybe if I grew a bit more right here, the Contractor would finally notice me, Croc thought to herself with a quiet, annoyed pout. Her brewing irritation finally got the absolute better of her, and she decided to speak up.
"Hey, toothpick! What exactly are you doing?" Croc yelled across the bank.
She paused abruptly as the girl's deep purple gaze slowly locked onto her. For a brief, terrifying moment, the air in Croc's lungs turned heavy, and she found it genuinely hard to breathe under the weight of that unblinking stare. She shook her head, forcefully overcoming the suffocating sensation pretty quickly, and crossed her arms.
"What are you doing sniffing the air like that anyway?" Croc asked again, her tone highly defensive. "You don't look like a beastkin at all. I am pretty sure your human sense of smell is weak as hell!"
Areia looked at her for a long, quiet moment, her absolute poker face not breaking even in the slightest. She gave the reptile beastkin a look as if she were inspecting nothing more than an annoying, stray cat. Without a single spoken response, she completely dismissed Croc and calmly went right back to her business, turning her head back toward the open horizon.
She... she actually ignored me?! Croc thought in complete shock, her cheeks flushing with indignation.
She gritted her teeth, staring intensely at the girl who was now quietly measuring the sky with her eyes. If she really is who I think she is, then she absolutely should react to this, Croc pondered, a calculating glint entering her slitted eyes. Dan always said she didn't have a nasty temper and was completely passive most of the time, but that she could get incredibly dangerous real quick when it comes down to it. A mischievous, daring smile broke across Croc's face.
"If only the Contractor was here with me right now... I'm sure having him around would make this perfect day even better!" Croc said loudly, practically projecting her voice across the lake.
But Areia didn't even bother to glance back at her. Her white hair just fluttered softly in the lake breeze.
She didn't react to that either? Is she not actually his knight? Croc pondered for a moment, her brow furrowing. Then, a sudden realization hit her. Oh... I think I know exactly what the problem is. Her smile twisted into a highly provocative, smug smirk.
"I can remember the day I boldly barged right into Dan while he was bathing," Croc said loudly, a teasing lilt in her voice.
She instantly held her breath.
Whoosh.
Before the last syllable could fully leave her mouth, Areia's deep purple eyes were suddenly inches away from her own face. Croc hadn't seen the white-haired girl move at all—there was no blur, no rustle of grass, no sound. But the exact millisecond Dan's name left her lips, Areia was just there, her sheer, suffocating presence completely paralyzing the young beastkin where she stood. The air around the lake froze into an icy, dead calm.
"What did you just say about my Master?" Areia's voice was a silent, freezing whisper of pure death.
"Are you trying to kiss me?" Croc asked, hurriedly taking multiple steps back to regain her personal space. Even with her heart pounding from the sudden displacement, the mischievous glint remained in her slitted eyes as she locked a smug look onto her face. "Well, as I said... though it was entirely an accident, it did happen."
Croc paused, standing barefooted in the grass as she stared critically at the white-haired girl. Up close, she couldn't help but feel a sharp, frustrating prickle of jealousy at how effortlessly pretty Areia looked, even just standing there in her undergarments. Should I... should I try to buff down a bit? Croc thought to herself in a momentary panic.
Areia just stared at Croc for a while, her intense purple eyes flickering down toward the girl's large reptile tail before snapping back to her face. The deadly, suffocating aura surrounding her began fading by the second as a look of sudden realization washed over her features.
"Oh... you must be the fake Master traveled with while I wasn't around," Areia muttered, her tone instantly becoming flat and dismissive. "I heard about you from Cyra. Croc, was it?"
"Fake?!" Croc's mind reeled in pure shock. Did this toothpick just call me fake?! "What exactly gives you the right to judge if I'm authentic or not?!" Croc growled loudly, her tail slamming hard against the dirt behind her.
"Well, for one, you speak like a total child," Areia said coldly, crossing her arms over her simple white blouse. "Yeah, I admit I was genuinely upset about what you said just now... but now that I'm taking a closer look at you? Nah, I shouldn't be worried at all. After all, I am Master's official, sworn knight. You were just a cheap, temporary replacement until we met again. You just took over my job until I arrived."
No... Croc thought in sudden despair, a cold weight sinking into her chest. Why am I letting her words get to me so easily? Dan wouldn't do that...
Areia took a slow, deliberate step toward her, her purple eyes narrowing slightly into dangerous slits. "A girl with no home, and no certain place in society," she said in a slow, venomous purr that cut straight to Croc's deepest insecurities. "You were the absolute perfect dummy for my replacement. Someone who could die on the battlefield and wouldn't cause any repercussions whatsoever."
"You're wrong! Dan wouldn't do that!" Croc yelled, her voice cracking as the emotional armor she usually wore began to shatter.
"Oh, yes he would," Areia smiled cruelly, leaning in just a fraction. "You actually think you know Master? I truly pity your existence. Your entire life and time spent with him was nothing more than a cheap, passing substitute for the eternal bond he and I share." Areia paused, casually flicking her long white hair backward over her shoulder. "Besides... I don't think Dan would ever prefer a man-like girl like you over an actual woman." She smiled.
"You're mean!!!" Croc yelled at the top of her lungs, violently stomping her bare foot onto the riverbank. Tears instantly welled up in her slitted eyes and began spilling down her cheeks. "Dan wouldn't! No... you're a liar! You're a dirty liar!" she sobbed openly.
Areia froze, completely stunned for a brief moment as she watched the fierce reptile warrior dissolve into a weeping mess right in front of her.
Oh, crap... I went way too far, Areia thought to herself, a wave of instant regret washing over her. I guess my conversation with Cyra last night really put me in a horrific mood. "Look, lizard..." Areia began, her voice softening significantly as she took a tentative step forward.
"No! I don't want to hear a single thing from you, you liar!" Croc yelled, wiping her face aggressively as she kept crying. "Dan wouldn't use someone! He wouldn't! That is the entire, exact reason he's trying so hard to find a safe home for me here in the beast kingdom!"
"Yeah... yeah, I know that," Areia said, awkwardly scratching the back of her head as her poker face completely crumbled into guilt. "Look, I got worked up over what you said earlier and I said a lot of terrible things I absolutely shouldn't have. Just... stop crying, alright? You're making me feel incredibly bad here."