"What do you mean… not human?" Aika asked, dropping back to her knees beside the two.

Leon shook his head slowly with his eyes fixed on Uriel. "I don't… I don't know what she is, but she's not human. It's almost as if that body is just an incarnation… a shell for something utterly terrifying." His grip on Uriel's arm tightened. "That's the most scary thing I've seen in my entire life."

Leon coughed up blood again as the image burned in his mind.

At this point, Uriel turned to Aika. "Please, I need you to leave. Leon needs to rest."

Aika hesitated at first. Eventually, she stood up and bowed her head again. "I'm sorry."

After a moment, she added, "Please… could you do me a favor and… keep this from my bearer."

Uriel didn't say anything. She only nodded after a second before returning to her work tending to Leon.

Aika then turned around and left the tent.

***

…

..

.

Back to the present…

——

Aika sighed and hugged her legs tighter.

'Just what in the world is Seo-yeon?'

That thought kept hammering in her head over and over again.

Leon had said that Seo-yeon was never human. Which meant that the entire time Cedric was with her back on Earth, he was with a monster. And he didn't even know.

Aika shuddered, and many other questions began to run through her mind.

Where did this terrifying creature come from? What was its origin, and how did it find its way to Earth? What did it want? Did the other lords know about it, or did they all believe she was just a human like them?

More importantly… it was with Cedric on Earth. Did it have a motive for staying by his side?

Aika's thoughts churned.

And the minutes ticked on to hours…

Eventually, when her exhaustion finally caught up to her, she lay down on Cedric's chest, wrapping her arms around him tightly as she went to sleep.

***

After breakfast the next day, Cedric and Aika began the long trip back the Puppeteer's Grove.

In order not to take weeks, they used One with the Ravens to get back faster by jumping to the spots they had marked with their feathers as anchors.

At the end, it took them four days to eventually arrive at the grove.

When they got there, the sight that met them was quite… shattering.

For one, the number of cadets who remained at the ashen campground had thinned out significantly. Many of those who were left had visible injuries on their bodies and eyes that looked completely hollow.

In the tents area, many of the tents had been torn to shreds, burnt, or collapsed entirely. And more seemed to be empty. Even the barracks was not spared. Many of the wooden shelters had been smashed into splinters, as if something incredibly heavy had simply walked through them.

And besides the metallic scent of blood that hung in the air, the entire atmosphere in the grove was suffocatingly grim.

Of course, this wasn't surprising to Cedric, as he had already been watching everything that had happened through the eyes of Kage.

The only consolation was that this crazy, unnecessary war was now over.

The cadets from the Bastion of the Somarian Pride had mostly all been killed. Only a few were left, and they were locked up in the barracks. Well, except for Yami, who, according to Cedric's map, was still somewhere in the Grade Two region.

Cedric sighed as he made his way to his shelter.

'Crazy…'

At that moment, a raven flew through the air towards him. It circled his head twice in a frantic blur of black feathers before landing on his finger.

"Master! Master!"

Cedric smiled. "How are you, Kage?"

The bird ruffled its wings and let out a sharp, proud caw. "Safe! Kage is safe!"

"Good."

The bird flapped its wings and began circling Cedric again as he continued on to the shelter.

On getting to the entrance, he could see that everyone was having dinner in the general area.

Dion was the first to spot him, and a wide, genuine smile grew on his lips as he stood up from the crate he was perched on. "Look who decided to come back to us."

Cedric immediately noted the bandage wrapped around Dion's shoulder, but the boy's energy seemed remarkably intact. Dion reached out and initiated a closed-up handshake. "We were starting to think the shadows finally got you, man."

A large, genuine smile crossed Cedric's face too. But more than his own relief, everyone around beamed when they saw their leader back.

The person who looked to be the most in high spirits was Audrey. She had a black raven in her hand that she was gently stroking. If someone didn't know that it belonged to Cedric, they might think it was her bond.

She turned to Dion. "See, I told you he was coming back today," then she gave the raven a light nudge. "Kuro was right."

The raven in her hand suddenly flapped its wings and shrieked in agreement. "See! Told you so! Told you so!"

The others giggled and reunited with Cedric. After walking through the grim atmosphere of the Grove, it was reassuring to see that the party was largely unaffected.

Cedric joined them for dinner while they chatted about the recent happenings in the grove.

During one of the conversations, Ino chipped in, "After Princess Aurora lost half her party, she allowed a few of the survivors from the other influential parties into hers to fill up the numbers."

Evelyn looked up from her meal, then added, "I heard Alicia, who is the only survivor of her party, is now in the Princess's party. Roben too." She paused for a second. "Oh, and also your brother."

When Cedric heard that, he looked up from his meat.

Then, an evil smile slowly began to creep up his face.

"Ah… my brother."

Everyone slowly looked at him with a growing sense of unease. The lighthearted atmosphere from a moment ago slowly turned a bit darker as they watched his expression shift.

Cedric stared at his food with a dark expression.

"You know guys, I couldn't wait to get back. I guess I really did miss my little brother. After all, it's been a while since I last saw him. Mmm… I think I should pay him a visit tomorrow, and maybe… cripple the bastard while I'm at it."

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