In a lush forest somewhere in the Evafall continent, a small brick house stood firm as it braved the raging storm just outside.
Countless trees had already fallen to the strong winds outside but the house stood still like an unshakable mountain.
Within the house were a few figures.
Gai and Marco along with the old man in blue robes that accompanied them from Laron to the cloud temple were here.
The wolf beastman known as Little Lo and the cat beastman Linli were also present.
Currently, all the monks including Gai were silently meditating in the living room. Marco was practicing sword moves by the side and the old man was sitting quietly at a table by the window sipping something out of a cup.
They had already been here for nearly two days waiting for the old man's contact. The storm had only been getting worse and worse which made their hearts tighten as they knew clearly the cause of it.
Was the storm getting worse a good thing or a bad thing?
None of them were sure so they all did things to take their minds away from it.
As they were silently waiting, a violent surge of mana suddenly shook the living room and moved towards one of the walls which had a few symbols and inscriptions drawn on it.
This startled them and the meditating monks were shaken awake.
The symbols that were drawn in a large circle suddenly glowed after absorbing a large amount of mana and a dark void suddenly appeared in front of them.
Seeing the familiar endless dark void, Gai's mind shook as he was overwhelmed by the billowing aura before it changed to a quiet grassland scenery.
A pale yellow cloaked figure walked through and following behind him were two people he recognized.
One was actually their friend Ann who hadn't followed them to the cloud monk sect.
The old man had said there was nothing for her there so he had her sent to another place shortly after they had arrived through the portal.
The other person was someone he wasn't so familiar with but definitely recognized.
The famous ranker also known as the queen's apprentice.
She looked elegant with her short light green hair with matching eyes and was wearing a long white dress with a green belt tied at the waist to accentuate her figure.
The only weapon he could see on her was a small dagger attached to the belt and nothing else.
The two sides met each other face to face with the old man facing the figure hidden in the pale yellow robe.
"I am grateful for your help these past few days" the old man said with a slight bow.
A low ethereal voice with no distinction between man or woman answered him from below the cloak.
"It is not much, consider it a favor I owe you from the past."
The old man's face twisted a bit but relaxed quickly enough. He deepened his bow though before standing up again and gestured to the people behind him.
"These are all disciples of the cloud monk old master. I beseech you to be merciful to them should you encounter them in the future."
He said with a somewhat pleading tone.
The gaze of the yellow cloaked figure turned to Gai and the rest which sent shivers down their spines.
They felt like all their secrets had been seen through by the cloaked figure with just that glance and they couldn't even resist.
"It is okay, a favor from me to you."
The ethereal voice came out again.
The old man heaved a relieved sigh before bowing his thanks again.
Turning to his group, he motioned to them to bow also.
"Take a bow to greet the Yellow sovereign and thank him for his grace."
'The yellow sovereign!?'
To the two beastmen Little Lo and Linli, the yellow sovereign was a very familiar name that sent trembles through their heart and they bowed immediately.
Gai and Marco were slower on the uptake as they had no idea who this yellow sovereign was.
"Then, should we be on our way?"
The old man nodded satisfied when he saw them bow before turning to ask the yellow sovereign.
The figure nodded before answering.
"You may be on your way. That little girl has already said she would shelter you for a while. Even if it is them, they wouldn't dare to cross her so easily."
"You won't be following us, sir?" the old man asked inquiringly.
"I have other matters to attend to so I naturally can't. May Ulna's blessings be on your side."
The old man couldn't say anything more as in that moment, the yellow cloak dropped to the floor like a flag that had lost its support.
A moment later, the cloak burnt away in a soundless and smokeless flame. The entire thing happened so fast it was like a magician performing tricks!
Gai and the rest sucked in a cold breath seeing this. They couldn't imagine just what kind of magic was this.
At this moment, a figure stepped forward.
It was the beautiful wood elf who had been silently standing all this while.
She gave a small bow to the old man before speaking.
"I come under the command of my master, the queen of the elven queendom and the protector of the Ludos forest range to invite you to her imperial court. She hopes you would accept her invitation gracefully."
The old man took a few seconds to look at the wood elf who held her bow before sighing.
"What does it matter, I would have to meet her eventually anyway."
He muttered under his breath.
"Thank you. We would be honored to receive your master's grace. Please, lead the way."
It wasn't until he replied that the elf stood up with a beautiful smile on her face.
She took a position beside the old man and Ann eagerly went to reunite with Gai and Marco.
The procession then followed her lead as they entered the portal to arrive at the grassy plain on the other side.
The portal slowly closed after the last person went in. And as for the house, it vanished mysteriously from the forest like it had never existed in the first place.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Reo and Hina had been working hard at the golem designs for almost three hours.
In between, Hina had gone to bring some snacks and drinks which they gladly feasted on as they put their brains to work.
Reo had to be honest that with his sister working out the finer details of the golems, it became much easier to create better blueprints.
The only problem was that he now began to realize the flaws in his earlier designs and just how much work he would have to do to create much better golems in the future.
'No wonder the golems are so slow compared to Amba, and they take so much mana too!'
He grumbled heavily in his mind.
'But the mana consumption shouldn't have much to do with their original forms, right? Maybe a problem with the inscriptions?'
The more he thought about it, the more issues he found.
'Thinking about it, I truly have no knowledge about inscription writing, all I did was shameless copy pasting. I need to find a way to learn more about inscriptions.'
A loud ringing broke his train of thought and he reached for his laptop.
Hina was still busily making some adjustments to some new designs on the large screens and wasn't paying attention to him.
She was eager to see these designs come to life and that fueled her enthusiasm even more.
Answering the call that came in, Reo found himself looking at Natsu's grinning face.
" 'Sup you useless piece of shit"
He greeted cheekily.
"What do you want, retard?"
Reo answered back with a laugh.
"Ren and I are going out to have some fun. You coming?"
"Hmm…."
Reo turned to look at Hina working diligently. They had been working for quite long now and it didn't sound like a bad idea to relax a bit.
"Sure, I'll be on my way. Same place?"
He made up his mind.
"Same place, and hurry up!"
And Natsu switched off the call.
Reo stood up and stretched his arms with a yawn.
"Hey sis, I'm going to go out for a bit with Natsu and Ren. Finish quickly and go take a rest too."
"Hmm… going out? Go where?"
Hina turned to face him.
"What? Wanna go?"
"Yes! I haven't been out of the house in a while!"
She jumped up eagerly.
"But… we have guests right now. I don't really feel comfortable going downstairs again."
She frowned slightly.
"You really are a hopeless introvert!"
Reo said helplessly.
"Don't talk like you aren't the same!"
She shot back at him.
"Well who cares, who said anything about following the stairs anyway?"
Reo waved it off nonchalantly before making a mischievous smile.
"What do you mean?"
Hina looked at him warily.
A few minutes later, a frightened but very excited Hina was clutching tightly to a wildly elated Reo as they boarded his modified hover board
With Reo's expert control, they leapt out of their second floor window and landed silently on the lawn.
The two figures quickly disappeared down the street at top speed where their mischievous laughter was heard by confused passersby.