It was already morning when Kim woke up. The last thing he remembered was looking at the silhouette of hundreds of men charging at them and Davidson telling them not to worry. The amount of mist they inhaled was not enough to cause any serious damage but it did rob them of their consciousness for a good ten hours.
Marcellus and Yahiko carried all the men inside the caves. Davidson had cleanly hit all the followers of Mccoy in a way they would not be seriously injured but just enough to pass out. By the time it was morning, almost all of them had fled.
"I hope You had a good nap, Mr. Kim," said Davidson when Kim finally found Davidson after looking around in all the other Directions. The room looked like a dormitory. Since It was inside a cave the only light source was whatever entered through the entrance. there were five other beds in the room, each had one of his men on them. Davidson was by the entrance on a chair.
"It's impressive that they managed to make such a fine hideout out of this place. Reminds me of my days back when I was in the army." Davidson said as Kim looked around more.
When the drowsiness finally subsided Kim got up quickly and found his coat on a hanger.
"Princess, Where is she?"
"Oh, She is in much better health than you, rest some more, we old folks need those," Davidson said as he walked out. Kim followed him outside, The sun was already up. it was much brighter outside. The main entrance of the cave was a slope that was about eight meters above the river.
"Mine is bigger," Yahiko shouted at Marcellus. They were both on the river, The water was at their knee level. A large bubble of water that had transparent black encapsulation around it floated in front of Yahiko. Marcellus also had his own bubble which was definitely slightly bigger than the one Yahiko had.
"That's because you are looking at yours from a closer distance you idiot," Marcellus shouted back.
"Don't be rude to someone who is older than you,"
"You are only older by a couple of mont- stop with that bullshit already,"
Marcellus's water bubble burst causing all the water to escaped splash into the river because he lost focus, He turned red because of anger,
"This fucking moron, arrghhhhhh" He shouted as Yahiko just stood there and laughed but his bubble burst too because laughing took his focus away.
"Full of energy so early in the morning, aren't we? You guys make me want to go back to when I was 19" Davidson said in a loud voice from the entrance.
"That would make you younger than me just like somebody here," said Yahiko, and Marcellus just rolled his eyes and looked away.
"You two are already making shields I see," Davidson said excitedly.
"Just the shape, for now, it is nowhere near resilient like the ones Ivanna made," Marcellus said as he gestured his palm that looked like he was pushing something towards the water. The aura that emerged from his hand reached the water that slowly picked up about ten liters of water and formed a sphere that floated up with his palm's gesture.
"So you are using water to perfect the shape? How did you think of that?" Davidson asked. Kim was watching them from behind.
"Ivanna told us about it, The water's pressure against the wall of our shields gives us the idea about the force of the aura needed to maintain the perfect shape."
"Princess, Where is she?" Kim hurried towards the boys. Davidson wanted to tell him to relax but he stopped himself. The boys looked at him uncomfortably as he walked towards them so fast it looked like he was skipping.
"She was around a few minutes ago, I wonder where she went," Yahiko said getting out of the water as he looked around.
Ji won and all the other men started coming out of the entrances. It was customary for the royal guards to always wake up before the commander.
"Forgive us for shamefully lying in bed till so late," Ji won said in Korean and bowed before Kim. All the other men followed Ji won in unison.
"Wow they are just like the people from those historical movies," Marcellus who was still in the river commented letting his bubble burst intentionally this time.
"The situation demanded so, it's fine," Kim said as he signaled them to raise their head.
"Mr. Davidson, What really happened after we let ourselves be intoxicated so shamefully yesterday?" Kim asked Davidson who was enjoying the sight from the entrance.
"Well-" Davidson stopped speaking as he looked above towards the top of the cliff.
Yahiko and Marcellus did the same, the three had sensed the familiar aura coming from above them.
"Holy shit she is flying," said Marcellus as he watched Ivanna descend slowly from above, She had an aura around her body that seemed to be waving upwards.
All the men present watched thoughtlessly until she smoothly touched the ground without much recoil due to her precisely controlled landing. The motion was very elegant and aesthetically pleasing.
"It's been a long time, commander Kim," said Ivanna with a very affectionate smile.
Kim froze for a while, he did not respond But as soon as his conscious kicked in, he got teary and got on all fours and shouted.
"Gongju-mama"
The rest of the men imitated him in the action. It was a sight to see. For anyone watching, It would seem totally natural. The presence she radiated would easily make people think that she was indeed entitled to such a display.
"I'm guessing the word he just said means princess," Yahiko muttered loud enough for Marcellus to hear who was already out of the water.
"I mean, that's the word that has come out of his mouth the most since we met," whispered Marcellus.
Yahiko chuckled but nobody except Marcellus heard that.
"Raise your heads," Ivanna commanded. All heads raised immediately.
"I told you that you don't need to bow to me when we are not in the palace." She said as she walked towards Kim.
"Wherever you stand is the palace to us, Gongju mama," Kim said bowing his head again for meeting her eyes.
Ivanna chuckled and hugged him very comfortably, "You haven't changed even after coming to a whole new country,"
Kim would always feel uncomfortable when she showed affection, but he had taken the place of a father figure for her ever since the Head of the dynasty died. He would always tell her not to show affection to her subjects but she would never treat him as a retainer.
Davidson checked up on his phone and interrupted the union of Kim and Ivanna.
"I have anonymously notified the UN task force, I would like to keep our clan secret for now so we should leave before they arrive," Davidson informed them.
"Secret, huh? That is indeed in our best interest" Kim replied.
He commanded his men to prepare to leave the place.
"Miss Ivanna," Davidson walked down the slope, "or rather Princess Yoonah, what would you like to be called as?"
"Anything you are comfortable with, both names are dear to me but if you could exclude the princess I would be much comfortable," Ivanna replied.
Davidson nodded in acknowledgement.
"I was under the impression of you being our god but turns out I assumed wrong," Davidson said rubbing his chin.
"What? She is not a god?" Kim asked curiously. He had not been told about it.
"Seems that way, that also explains why none of you awoke as followers because basically any follower with our aura is the follower to our actual god,"
That was a big issue. So much was rising on Ivanna being awakened as a god. Kim sighed but he decided to discuss the things later. For now, he was happy that the princess was safe.
Meanwhile, Davidson had to reanalyzed everything.
Davidson remembered the words of the mysterious man they fought last night.
"So out of the two energies I sensed, the underwhelming one belonged to the actual god. I never Imagined a god to have a mana pool lesser than the pacifier, I wonder If what that man said was all true,"
"Not necessarily, I'm guessing that he hasn't fully awakened or could he be unconscious? The aura coming from a sleeping person is supposed to be very low despite his mana pool," Ivanna thought out loud.
"Unconscious? but it's been more than a month." Davidson raised his concern, "And how are you sure it's a He?" He paused and thought back to what happened yesterday, "But again you did say that you heard a voice last night. could you explain more about that?"
Ivanna thought about last night and a chill ran down her spine. She could remember the feeling as if it was happening right at the moment.
"I don't know how to explain it. I definitely heard a voice. He was not talking to me, It was like I was able to peek inside his mind. He was very angry and desperate, It felt like he was rebelling against the universe. To an extent, it was similar to how I was feeling at that moment." Ivanna said as her turned soft remembering the overwhelming emotions that she felt last night.
"To be honest, I felt something odd too," Marcellus joined in, "It felt as if someone was lending me more power. All of our aura jumped to another level at that moment didn't it?"
Yahiko and Davidson agreed. They all had individually sensed something strange just before Ivanna was engulfed by her intense aura. It was like their desperation was the key to their power.
"This aura of ours, I don't know what is it but sometimes it feels as if its sort of like, what's the word," Marcellus paused to browse through his vocabulary, "Imposing on me to feel emotions, It's spooky,"
Others silently agreed to him, it was something all of them had felt at least once.
There was silence for a moment because all of them were thinking back to last night.
Finally Davidson broke the ice.
"I had something to discuss with the clan but I guess that will have to wait till we find the god first," Davidson put on his coat that was hanging by his shoulders.
"Now, how do we find him? Unlike Miss Ivanna, he is not emanating the amount of aura that is sufficient enough to be traced by any devices,"
After hearing that Ivanna wanted to try something so she closed her eyes and channeled her aura. She had always sensed the nearly non-existent aura. She could not see it like Davidson but her connection to it was greater than his for it was the same alpha energy she possessed. That aura was what enabled her own aura. She could always feel it entering her, contacting her very conscious, it empowered her.
"I can do it," She said opening her eyes.
Davidson raised his eyebrows. He was surprised that she was already proficient in using her aura, tracking down aura was a hard thing to do even for him.
"But first, I must go back. Janine must be worried sick," she said looking at Kim.
"She has indeed lost some weight princess." Kim humbly replied.
"Ok let's meet at my place later, do you have a phone I can use GPS on? Wait does the network work at that altitude?" Ivanna said looking around if anyone had what she wanted.
Davidson raised his eyebrows again, "You don't mean to-" He looked at Ivanna and realized that she did mean to after all, " I don't think its safe considering it's a large distance,"
But Ivanna was not changing her mind.
"Seriously, why does nobody in this clan listen to others? We are doomed if our god is an even bigger troublemaker," Davidson sighed, then he took a phone out of his pocket and tossed it at Ivanna, "Here, this uses satellite internet."
Ivanna used her aura to cushion the fall of the phone on her hands. She checked the interface and smiled back at Davidson to show she was grateful. Davidson just sighed.
Kim finally understood what was going on after she channeled her aura and started levitating.
"Princess, It might be dangerous to travel alone, Please travel with us" He worriedly pleaded to his princess.
"I got this, see you guys later." She said as her aura fiercely vibrated around her making a very audible buzzing sound and she took off at an incredible speed. Kim was cut off before he could say anything else because of the impact her propulsion created. Within a few seconds, she went out of sight as she parted the clouds in the sky that revealed her path.
"We got to ask her to teach us how to fly. how did she learn it so fast?" Marcellus who was still staring at the sky said talking like a child who had just learned speech because he was too amused.
Kim exhaled in half relief, " She never listens," Then he looked at Davidson curiously, "By the way, did you take on those hundred of men by yourself?"
Davidson nodded.
Kim let out a satisfied laugh, and then he extended his hand towards Davidson, "I guess this makes us allies now, I'm grateful to have a man such as you by our side."
Davidson shook the hand he was offered heartily.
Two hours later a unit of UN task force arrived and found McCoys body as well as few of his followers around the hideout. It was just as the anonymous informer had told them. They traced the aura residue from McCoys body to find out clues about who he fought with, they discovered multiple aura signatures that had not been recorded in the UNRM database.