65 Disappearance

After a short hour of comfortable ride , the group arrived at the bottom outskirt of the small village hill. "Wow we're already here.." Ali felt like crying after she saw the chimney smoke rising up the sky as the villager just woke up from their sleep as it was just around the times when the storm calmed down.

After going around the hill , Nodus decided to park the car in the cozy wooden hut as it was surrounded by the forest and walked down to the village on foot. "I can't wait to see your parents , Ali!" Mimi was also happy for her and felt a little bit nervous as most of the northern lands never seen an elf before.

"Mhmm! I excited to see them too!" With Ali leading them into the village , she encountered many villagers and introduced her friends to them. "They are still friendly as always.. Why don't we eat breakfast with your parents?!" Ali quickly agreed to Lulu's wonderful ideas as she forgot that she was hungry and that no one ate for breakfast yet.

Just as she expected , her parents were in the backyard , feeding their animals and got a great surprised when they saw their daughter. "Ali!" The parents ran towards her and held on the little girl tightly as they cried with tears of joy. "Mom , dad.." The little girl couldn't hold back her tears as she cried along her parents.

After their little reunition , Ali introduced her new friends to the parents and after knowing that Kathrina was related to Lulu , they felt a sense of relief and invited the folks inside. "Mr Naire really kept his promise.." The father whispered to his wife and she also agreed with him because they were confused at first as to why he wasn't with them.

Even though the northern is dangerous , knowing that Kathrina was accompanying them with their trip , the parents felt really grateful and gave her some rare winter tea herbs. "Thank you so much.. And don't worry too much about Ali , she is a great magician , she can already go straight to the 2nd grade if she wanted too.." Kathrina was complimenting the little girl and made the parents even happier.

After bringing out some sandwich that she made the night before , the entire group enjoyed a light meal and rested for a little bit. "Lulu , they were delicious." Hearing the young man compliments , Lulu blushed as she lowered her head downward. "Thank you..I-..I received training from C1."Nodus stroked her head before leaving the wooden house and sat on the front porch.

"Should we let Ali stay here while?" Kathrina suggested that Ali could remain here while they finish up their missions and come back to pick her up. "I think so too , she can finish her foundation here , in peace." The teacher rested on the wooden chair and stared at the back of the young man who sat on the fence. 'Where do you come from exactly..'

Although she did not want to pry , Kathrina still asked around her sect to see if anyone from the moons descended and found out a hidden information. The only thing she could find was that one of her sect's high elder was the one who shrouded it. 'Is that elder related to the moons..?' Those were the only thought she had during the ride.

'Just who is that elder..' After pondering for a while , Ali and the girls came out through the door. "Teacher , big brother Nodus , are we leaving already?" Everyone could see that she had a sad face even though she tried to hide it with a smile.

"Silly..Stay if you want , we can come pick you up after our trip." The little girl looked at her friends as she was unsure on whether she should stay or go. "You can stay here and concentrate on your foundation." Nodus decided to convince her as the girls reassured that they would come back really soon.

"Isn't it better Ali? Like this you can be at peace and build your foundation!" After giving a hug to everyone , Ali decided to stay behind as she waved at her friends who went along the village path.

"Everyone is ready?" The girls nodded as Nodus gently pressed on the pedal with his shoes. Even though the car was really fast , Nodus made it with a anti force module so they couldn't feel any pressure within the vehicle. "Ah Boss! Are we going to my home?" Shishi stood up onto the front panel and realized that they were getting closer to the giant green mountain.

"I always wanted to visit this magical mountain!" Lulu gave a quick proud introduction about the mountain that was formed after a big war and was one of the main territories for the magical beast in the ancient times. "It look just like the painting.." After parking the core , he reverted it back into the size of a usb drive by using his watch.

Kathrina was surprised that it could transform into a dimensional tool as it shrunk and asked Nodus how would she be able to do it without the watch. "Don't worry , I can add something on your bracelet."

With everything ready , Lulu led the way as she held onto a piece of paper with the drawing of the plant. "How about me and Shishi go to the right?" After entering the green forest , Nodus went separately and made his way toward the cave. "Boss! It's home!" The cub ran first into the cave while Nodus turned on his hologram map. "Hmm..? There is no one?"

Looking at the map that was voided of energy node , Nodus thought that something went wrong so he quickly followed the young leopard behind. "Boss?" By being suddenly picked up by the young man , Shishi was slightly confuse but after seeing that Nodus was running down even fast than him , Shishi simply thought he was also excited.

"Huh.. There's no one home.." After running around in every short tunnels within the big room , Shishi came back to Nodus and sat beside him."They left to somewhere , voluntarily , so don't worry about them." After being comforted by Nodus , Shishi nodded and followed the young man as he went toward the other tunnel on the opposite side of the entrance.

"This was the hidden passage correct?" Shishi nodded as Nodus approached the light in the far distance. As they went on , the tunnel gradually turned upward like a sharp turn but with Nodus special shoes , he could easily walk on any platform as he reached the exit.

With a big pile of leaves blocking his view , Nodus could hear the sound of the waterfall and animals. Looking down at the green grass , Nodus felt like it was clean enough for him to prone down and slowly made his way through the big green leaves. "This is fun boss!" Shishi also crawled down on four legs as he followed beside him.

"What is this..?" He could see that it was brighter than usual since the upper top of the mountain surpassed the first layers of the clouds , but what he was most confused about is the waves of waters coming down from the sky. The three rivers that came down transformed the mountain top into a paradise of waterfalls that was surrounded by green lands on the side.

The big crater was literally a giant pool with some cliffs and hills extended sideways. 'I see why they wanted to live here..' Seeing many species of birds and fishes living in harmony , Nodus didn't bother to hide anymore and made his way on the edge of the cliff. Surprisingly , the water was clear as the sky , with a hint of blue , Nodus could see everything clearly on the bottom of the crater that was around 200 feet deep.

"Boss! I like this place so much!" Shishi was running around the dozen pack of trees as he stared at the fruits above , wondering if he should go for it or not , he then looked at Nodus. "It's safe to eat." After scanning through the vegetation of the mountain top , Nodus couldn't find anything harmful. 'I could use a scanner to find the herb...Maybe later..'

Since it was a trip for them , Nodus didn't want to spoil the search and that gave him a good reason to explore around."But where is everyone..?" After scanning around with the map , he couldn't see any energy nodes at all and curiously looked up the sky. "Z1 , Scan 30 km upward." Draining 30% from his full storage , Nodus was down to 70% and revealed a smile as he saw a dot above him.

'Hmm this mountain is about 100 Km tall...Someone is actually on the so called moons huh..' Standing right below the waterfall , Nodus pulled out his DeathCast from his sleeve and pointed it upward. Looking at his map , he could see the small mass of land with a node right at the edge of it.

"Who are you?" The girl who looked down the clouds heard a voice in her head that shocked her as she felt on her bottom. "Wha-!? Who-... Where are you?!" The black and white haired girl turned her head around as she looked for the source of the voice. "Don't worry , I am talking to you from the bottom , beside the waterfall." As he heard a young immature voice , Nodus didn't want to scare the person as he replied honestly.