Otherworld Adventure

"About that..." Rowan said uneasily.

"She"s not here with you..." Kaiser eyed Rowan menacingly.

"...She was ambushed on her way back from the kingdom...currently, all I know is that Ima and the two wives are in the mountains heading our way with a contingent of Merkruz forces on their tails..."

The atmosphere in the hall immediately turned cold as Kaiser became visibly upset and angered. His killing intent began roiling in the air, but Anastasia immediately stepped forward and calmed him down.

"Honey, calm down. Instead of being angered, we should hurry up and find her."

"I know...but this...b.a.s.t.a.r.d. How dare he have the cheek to report this to me?! Boy, shouldn"t you be by her side as Fatima"s fiancé right now?!"

"I"m sorry sir... Things became complicated when Fatima fell out with my brother...I couldn"t chase after her and for some reason, all hostilities between Regulus and Merkruz have been put on hold after my brother signed a non-aggression pact with the ruler of Merkruz."

"If that is so, then why are those Merkruz b.a.s.t.a.r.ds still chasing after my daughter?" Kaiser asked furiously.

"I"m not privy to the details behind the pact, but I feel like the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality wants to get rid of Ima...because she"s the cause for their failed attempt at conquering Regulus..."

"Bah, any idiot can deduce this! What I"m trying to ask is why your kingdom still hasn"t sent responded to this?! If there"s a pact, then this should already count as a breach to that pact!"

"...It"s most likely because of my brother...he"s trying to cut our line of connection because he"s been eyeing the Silvaria Kingdom"s resources."

Kaiser nearly slugged Rowan after hearing his words, but Anastasia immediately stopped him.

"Honey, stop! If what Rowan said is true then both Merkruz and Regulus have been eyeing us! Since he"s here, that means Rowan has essentially forsaken his t.i.tle as prince of Regulus to warn us about all this!"

"...Tch!" Kaiser clicked his tongue in displeasure. He began calling out to some of his family members before walking out of the hall.

"I"ll deal with this myself! Honey, you keep an eye on things here! I"ll go get our daughter and daughters-in-law!"

"Alright, Rowan dear, please come this way. Have your men garrison in the city, we"ll naturally provide the lodgings. I thank you for standing on our side...but can you tell me what caused the fallout?"

"Thank you, ma"am... well...it all started because of my second brother..."

Anastasia dismissed everyone else from the hall only leaving behind the main family members inside before she let Rowan finish his story. Anastasia was eyeing everyone who had walked out and noticed that some of the branch elders and families were discussing among themselves. She could already tell that they were trying to put some fault in her son for breaking the tradition.

"Now dear, please tell me everything."

"Alright, ma"am...but...it"s not going to be very pleasant..."

Once Rowan finished talking about the reason behind the fallout, Anastasia still had her poker face on, but the palpitating aura she was exuding told tales of how infuriated she was. Her son was nearly cuckolded by some b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Is she alright?"

"Yes, she"s alright. That woman was really powerful and there was a butler who was similarly powerful that was always trailing behind the two women. He was able to prevent my brother from defiling your son"s wife..."

"That"s good but... oh dear, to be put through such a traumatic incident..."

"I am very sorry..."

"Don"t be Rowan. It"s not your fault how your brother was brought up."

"..."

"I was sure that Cecil would be the one to protect his wife, but why was it the butler?"

"Ah, Madam Ana, that"s because your son Cecil was currently not with them..."

"...What? Then, where is he?"

"From what I heard, your son is currently on his way to Revertia, the next kingdom over. He"s been looking for his family as well, so he"s been scouring the continent kingdom by kingdom. He left Regulus to his wives to investigate while he left for Revertia..."

"Oh my... I know that this world is big and so is this continent...I just can"t imagine the hardships he had to go through to find us!"

"...We"ve only been searching through the nearby kingdoms...while your son was searching the continent..." Rowan smiled depreciatingly. Not just anyone would look through the entire continent just for their family. Only the powerful could do this and in Rowan"s mind, Cecil was without a doubt powerful.

"Aha! No wonder we couldn"t find big brother Cel! He was looking for us as well, so he probably got lost and began wandering!" Angelia quipped up with a laugh.

The other family members in the hall laughed at Angelia"s deduction. The heavy atmosphere permeating the hall was dissipated and now everyone was just glad to hear about their lost family member.

"Since he"s going to Revertia... won"t that take months? A round trip might take a long time!" Anastasia said in concern.

"No worries ma"am. From what I heard, your son is traveling in the air on one of his wives" familiar," Rowan replied.

"Familiar? Oh! So, there"s someone like me in brother Cel"s group?!" Angelia asked excitedly.

"It would seem so, Princess."

"Uhihihihi~ how fun~"

As for the woman in question, Lucia was currently slashing down enemies left and right. Serilla, Fatima, Quinn, and the rest of the entourage were currently trying to push back their pursuers.

It was unexpected, but the Merkruz army that was pursuing them had managed to catch up with them just as they were about to step into the main mountain path which led directly next to Silvaria Kingdom"s valley.

Serilla was enduring a lot of pressure from protecting the group and initiating counterattacks. No one could use mana so they had to rely on their shields and armor to protect themselves, Lucia, Serilla, and Quinn had a thin layer of Ki covering their bodies so they had better protection against the enemies" attacks.

Serilla was moving around the battlefield at high speeds as she cut down enemy after enemy while occasionally sending out a sword wave. They had started this cat and mouse chase over a week ago and the persistent Merkruz army kept it going until now.

They had been a little negligent due to their weariness, but it was enough to let the Merkruz forces catch up and corner them like this. Serilla was exhausted from the nights of short sleeps.

The group was constantly on the move and they would only take short breaks now and then so that they could stay ahead of their pursuers. However, a moment of negligence had sent them into their current situation.

"E-everyone, we"re almost there! All we have to do is get over that ridge and we"ll be able to see my kingdom!"

"Just over that ridge?!" Serilla asked?

"Y-Yes!"

"Okay, I"m going to cleave apart that ridge; surely the commotion will attract your family, right?"

"C-Cleave it apart?!"

Serilla didn"t respond and only flashed deep into the enemy lines while readying her technique. Once she had fully charged her blade with a majority of her Ki and Intent, Serilla immediately sliced down.

She carefully avoided her allies and made sure the trajectory of her attack was directed only on her enemies. The large sword wave that was ejected from Serilla"s sword flashed past all the enemies ahead of her and directly killed them.

It cleaved past and struck where the ridge was at and collapsed the ground around the area, sending debris and rocks off the mountain.

From down below, Kaiser was just getting ready to mobilize his men to scour the mountain pa.s.s for his daughters, but was immediately attracted by the alarming crash and the sudden expulsion of debris from the mountainside just outside of the valley.

He furrowed his brows and immediately redirected all his men to that area. Kaiser had a hunch and a gut feeling that his daughter and two daughters-in-law were over there.

It didn"t take long for Kaiser and his troops to scale the mountainside. Anastasia, Rowan, Angelia, and the other Silvaria siblings had also tagged along when they saw the debris flying from the secret pathway they found a while back.

The pathway was a secret area where Angelia and the brothers would go to when they wanted to find some monsters to fight and it was also a place where Angelia would sometimes find some monsters from the mountains to form a pact with and at to her already large collection of "buddies".

When the family reached the destroyed ridge area, they immediately noticed the fight which was taking place in the distance. Angelia and Rowan were the first ones to spot Fatima and they immediately rushed in to support her.

Angelia had brought only 3 of her buddies with her this time. Chi and Mao were naturally there, the third friend was a golden snake monster that had 3 heads who Angelia named Orochi.

"Get em guys!" Angelia said as she mounted Mao. Just before Mao could shoot forward, Kaiser grabbed onto Angelia"s collar and placed her back on the ground.

"You stay here! Let us grown-ups deal with this!"

"Booooo...I wanna fight too..."

"If these were monsters, I wouldn"t care, but they"re humans! Are you positive that you"re ready to stain your hands with the blood of humans?"

"Urk..." Angelia flinched when she heard her father"s words. He was right, she wasn"t ready.

"Be a good girl and stay here. You can still have your 3 friends help us," Kaiser patted Angelia on the head before turning to his men. "Everyone! GO! KEEP THOSE b.a.s.t.a.r.dS AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTERS!!!"

Kaiser charged out and so did Anastasia, Matheus, Luca, and the dull-faced Gabriel.

"You three, prioritize Ima"s safety! Don"t let anything happen to her!"

"Got it mom," Luca replied. Gabriel only nodded his head tiredly while Matheus just hurried his steps.

Kaiser jumped into the air and landed right in front of Fatima. He gathered his energy into his fist and punched out, sending a strong wave of energy out which blew back all the Merkruz soldiers in front of him.

"Father!"

"Ima, get back! We"ll take over from here!"

"O-okay! But, Lucia and Serilla are still in the middle of the enemy formation!"

"Lucia and Serilla?" Hearing those unfamiliar names, Kaiser was confused at first before immediately understanding that these two were probably the names of Cecil"s wives.

"Hah, that cheeky brat," Kaiser smirked before he charged into the enemy formation and began sending people flying into the air.

Anastasia had already flashed into the crowd of Merkruz soldiers and began weaving in between them. Every person she flashed by immediately dropped dead on the ground, her eyes were constantly searching around and she finally noticed a silver-haired girl struggling against a few Merkruz soldiers.

She looked visibly exhausted and next to her was a man in a butler"s uniform who was constantly defending against the attacks directed at the silver-haired girl while also taking giving s.p.a.ce for the girl to launch an attack of her own.

"That"s probably the butler and one of Cel"s wives," Anastasia mumbled. She immediately made her way over to the two and with a wave of her Tachi, she felled on the soldiers surrounding Lucia and Quinn.

Lucia widened her eyes in surprise at the sudden development. When she saw the pet.i.te woman appear just behind the line of fallen corpses, she loosened her nerves when she noticed that the woman didn"t display any hostilities towards them.

Lucia tiredly raised her katana and threw it at another Merkruz soldier in the distance before retrieving it with her Ki.

"M, Miss...My sister... she"s..." Lucia said while pointing in the distance.

"Hm?" Anastasia looked in the distance and saw a pink-haired woman moving nimbly around the enemy soldiers. "Oh, that must be the other one."

Anastasia nodded in approval after she saw both girls. "My son certainly has good tastes."