Cautiously approaching Ciri's pathway, I told my family and the two princesses to stay behind me. This could easily be a trap, and I didn't want any of them getting hurt from it. Quickly stabilizing the pathway before it disappeared, I slowly widened looking for any signs of an ambush. Once I was certain the area was safe, we made our way through the breach to investigate the other side.
"Alright, please keep an eye on the surroundings. Enemies could be beneath our feet or in the air.", I stated helping everyone through.
Stepping into a large prairie, we started looking around our immediate area for signs of civilization. Not sensing anyone nearby or seeing any structures in sight, I turned to the three best noses I knew. Asking Repune, Silva, and Alpha if they could sniff out any civilization the three of them began searching the area for a scent trail. After a few minutes of sniffing the air, the three of them looked at me with apologetic looks.
"Sorry dear…we can't smell anything except the grass.", Silva whimpered in defeat.
"It's odd though, we should at least smell animals nearby but we can't smell anything.", Alpha said with a worried look, "Could this world be devoid of life already?"
"I hope not, but there is an alternative option to look for people.", I replied as I turned to smoke, "Stay here for a moment, I will be right back."
Launching myself several thousand feet into the air in a matter of moments, I hung there in the sky looking further out for signs of people. Finding structures to the north of us, the city was too far away to make out how large it was. From what I could tell several of the structures on the outskirts looked damaged, but I couldn't be certain. With a settlement located, I teleported back to the ground and informed everyone that I found a town.
"To the north of us?", Celestial said trying to use her magic to view the city from afar, "Let me see here, I see-"
Before she could finish, her magic cut out as she collapsed to her knees. Catching her before she hit her head, I quickly checked to make sure she was okay. Sensing that her magic had started to run wild for a moment, I forcefully calmed it down before it got out of control.
"Are you okay!?", Shera asked in a worried tone.
"There is a powerful spell on that place…", Celestial remarked as she started to recover, "We should be careful if we are going to investigate it."
"I don't think we have a choice at this point.", I admitted, "To be safe, I want to put the infants in my Pocket Dimension where I can keep an eye on them. If this is a trap, the God of Demise might try to escape while we are temporarily restrained."
"Agreed, let's go get them from our families before leaving here.", Sapphire agreed.
—Fifteen Minutes Later—
Situating the infants in my Pocket Dimension, fortunately, they were more than happy to take a nap after having had a big breakfast. Kota and Eri were allowed to stay out with us but were told not to wander far no matter what. Agreeing to the conditions, they stood by their mothers while I pulled out our means of transportation. Pulling out a special carriage I had commissioned back on Alestar, today would be the first time I actually got to use it. With the means of transport ready, all we needed now was something to pull it.
"Eri, can you please have your Filoials pull the carriage for us?", I inquired with a smile, "I am sure they would love to pull this around."
"My chickies can pull this?", she asked skeptically, "It looks really heavy."
"Haha of course they can, you have raised them to be super strong!", I praised her, "They are the strongest Filoials I know."
"Hehe, they are super duper strong!", she agreed with a big smile, "Okay, I can ask my chickies to pull the carriage!"
Opening a portal to our backyard, I spotted the two of them roosting on our patio furniture…like they weren't supposed to. Setting that aside for the moment as we needed them to pull the carriage, it was up to Eri to get them to come to us. Placing her on my shoulders so they could see her, she began to call out to them.
"Come on chickies, Daddy needs you to pull a carriage for us!! We are going on an adventure today!!", Eri told them with excitement.
Perking their heads up at the mention of carriage, the two of them tore ass over to us. Watching them knock chairs, tables, and my hammock over I decided to discipline the two of them later for destroying our furniture. Leaping through the portal, they paid us no mind and ran up to the carriage with sparkling eyes. Thoroughly checking the carriage out, the two gave us a nod of approval a few minutes later. Getting into position at the front of the cart, the two looked at Eri and me with high expectations.
"Alright, the rest of you go ahead and pile on in. Eri and I will hitch the Filoials up.", I told them.
"Cole…it's going to be really cramped in this carriage.", Ryuko stated as she opened the door, "I know it looks like, but there are a lot of…HOLY SHIT!!! There is a fucking apartment in here!!"
Rushing inside to check the carriage out, Eri and I focused on hitching the Filoials up. Teaching her step by step how to safely and securely attach them to the carriage, I let her do one all by herself. Watching her struggle to get the lead over the Filoial I ended up picking her up so she could throw it over. Double checking her work once she was done, everything checked out perfectly which I praised her for. Telling her to go ahead and climb into the carriage with the others, she looked up at me with her big eyes and asked me for a favor.
"Can I ride up front with you, and guide the chickies…pwease?", she pleaded with the cutest face she could make.
I had no issue telling corrupt nobles to fuck off and killing whoever got in the way of my goals, but it was impossible to tell her no when she did this. Letting out a sigh, I agreed to her request so long as she followed my instructions carefully. Giving me a hug, she smiled brightly as she held onto me.
"You are the bestest Daddy ever!", she said proudly.
'Yep…this is going in my photo album.', I thought as I snapped a picture, 'Best to savor these moments before she grows up, and starts giving me the cold shoulder. God, I am not looking forward to those days…'
Helping her up onto the coachman's bench, I jumped up and sat next to her. Sitting her on my right knee, she took the reins from my hands as she eagerly waited for my instructions.
"Everyone ready?", I called out as I knocked on the side of the carriage.
"We are as ready as we will ever be.", Elouise replied as she opened the window, "Dear…is this the carriage Sir Bolton told us about? When you were taken away, he told us that you paid a large sum of money for an exquisite carriage that was meant to be used for our wedding."
Nodding my head at her words, this was that exact carriage she mentioned. Having spent months gathering the materials to make it, Bolton hand-delivered it to me three days before the wedding for me to inspect. Having taken inspiration from a certain time traveler, I had the Dwarves and Elves make us what effectively was an RV. Inside the carriage was a three thousand square foot home that had bathrooms, running water, and a fully stocked kitchen. It was intended to be our home while we honeymooned, but it wasn't meant to be in the end.
'I still owe all of them a honeymoon…all their friends got to have one, but I never gave them one.', I thought before quickly putting it aside for the moment, "Alright Eri, we need to head in that direction."
Pointing her in the direction we needed to head, she began issuing commands to the Filoials.
"Ok chickies, turn to the right till I say stop.", Eri requested of them.
Doing as she commanded, they started shuffling right until she told them to stop. Giving them the go ahead to begin moving forward, the two of them braced themselves as they would for an extremely heavy load. Launching themselves forward to get the carriage going, the two Filoials quickly realized there was almost no weight to the carriage. Watching them almost fall face first into the dirt, I used telekinesis to catch them before they did so.
"I am sorry, I forgot to mention the carriage is enchanted to lighten the weight to around one hundred pounds.", I informed the Filoials trying not to laugh, "If we didn't do that, the carriage wouldn't move as it weighs nearly five thousand pounds naturally."
Shaking the rough start off, the two of them started moving forward at a brisk pace. As they grew more accustomed to moving at speed, we gradually got up to seventy miles an hour which was impressive for a Filoial of their size. Giggling with delight as we ran across the plains, Eri was having a blast letting her pets go all out.
"Faster Chickies, Faster!", Eri giggled getting them to their top speeds, "Hehe, look at me, Daddy!!"
Crawling onto the bench, she stood up and raised her hands as she shouted into the wind. Holding the reins for her, I kept my right arm behind her in case we hit a bump and she got knocked off the bench. Letting her enjoy herself for a few minutes, Eri eventually sat back down on my knee as the town came into view. Seeing smoke rising from some ruined buildings that I hadn't seen prior, I had the Filoials slow down and approach with caution.
"Alright, time for you to go inside because it's too dangerous for you to be out here.", I said knocking on the carriage, "Can one of you please take Eri?"
"Okay, do what he says okay?", Eri told them as Mirko pulled her inside.
Changing my appearance to match what it once was on Alestar, I slowly guided the carriage into town. Moving past the burnt out buildings, the Filoials took us into the city square where everything felt dead. Seeing no water flowing in the city fountain and barren stalls around the square, I almost thought everyone had moved on when I noticed a pair of rounded ears pop up from behind an empty fruit basket.
"It's no use hiding anymore, I know you are here.", I said using Detect Life to locate the citizens, "If you are going to stay hidden, you will be treated like enemies and killed as such."
"Please wait!", several people shouted as they came rushing out of the buildings all around us, "We mean you no harm, please don't hurt anyone!"
Watching dozens of people fill the square, everyone looked severely malnourished and thirsty. Seeing flashbacks of the darker days of Alestar, I asked them what had happened here.
"We used to be a thriving farming community, the finest crops in the territory were grown here in our city!", one of the men boasted, "It doesn't look like it, but up till three months ago this was a bustling town. Around that time an Apostle of the Living God came to us demanding a large sum of money as a tribute to the Living God. All of us came together and barely managed to gather the necessary funds to appease them. Two weeks later they came back demanding more, but we had nothing to give them anymore."
"Since we had no money left, the Apostle suggested we sell the men and children into slavery while the women could go to the Living God's Temple.", one of the mothers shivered in fear as she held her baby, "All of us adamantly rejected that, and that made the Apostle very angry. Calling us heretics and heathens, they cursed us to starve to death here for our transgressions. Since that time the water has stopped coming up out of the ground and crops won't grow, only grass will which is what we have been eating all this time."
Pointing to a sword buried up to its hilt on the other side of the fountain, I could sense a massive amount of Divine Energy coming from it. Realizing that the sword was what caused Celestial's magic to run wild earlier, I jumped off the carriage and approach it. Noticing what I was about to do, one of the children ran over to stop.
"Mister don't touch it!!", the young boy warned me, "The Heroes tried to remove it, and one of the ladies almost died!!"
"Thank you for the warning, but that won't be a problem!", I remarked ripping the sword out of the ground.
Using my Destruction Power to obliterate the sword entirely, water almost immediately started gushing out of the fountain. Staring at the fountain and then at me in amazement, their expressions softened as they ran over to drink normal water for the first time in three months. Letting them drink their fill before continuing, I wanted to know more about what the status of things was here and where their Heroes were.