Rowan

The King's and their Queens all gasped in shock and astonishment. Their royal children who stood next to them gasped, including my teammates.

The only ones who did not seem to be shocked were my father, Hades Silvan, the King of the Silvan Kingdom, and King of the Asten Kingdom, George Asten. I looked at my father with blazing eyes of determination. If he did not want to rescue Kai, then I was planning on rescuing him myself.

I already lost my friend in my previous life, I couldn't bear to see him getting hurt in this life.

I looked towards my father and, I couldn't help but glance next to his right side. There was a beautiful woman next to him. She had long silver hair and turquoise blue eyes. She was holding a pretty white fan which dropped to the floor when she heard what I said. The woman was Celeste Silvan, the Queen of the Silvan Kingdom. She was trembling with tears streaming down her beautiful face, however, I tried to pay no heed to her as I was determined to show my father that I was serious and I was not joking around with this matter.

My father looked back at me with his cold green eyes and I refused to back down. I could tell that underneath those cold eyes, he was trying to discern whether or not I was joking. I stared back at him with an unwavering gaze to show him my resolve and my seriousness.

After our little mini showdown which lasted all of about 10 seconds, I could see his cold green eyes soften a bit but before I could make sense of his expression, my two older brothers, Perseus Silvan and Zale Silvan rushed toward me in a frenzy.

"What did you just say?!" Perseus yelled, shaking my shoulders fiercely.

"Kai is the lost 3rd prince of the kingdom of Silvan, your younger brother," I said.

"We must rescue him at once!" I heard the Queen Celeste Silvan shout through her tears and her husband, King Hades nodded in agreement.

"My wife is right! Let's rescue them, what are we waiting for?!?"

What a total 180, I thought. Just seconds before the King did not want to waste any time and did not even try to find Kai, but once he found out that Kai was his son and the Queen's suddenly exclamation, he suddenly wanted to take charge.

This was the first time to meet my so-called father since I reincarnated into this world and he seemed to have a few loose screws if I may say so myself. It wouldn't surprise me if he were to forget that Kai was not the only one missing.

"And Caliban too," I added.

The King frowned at the mention of Caliban. It seems like I was right. He did forget that Caliban was missing as well.

"Caliban...?" He pondered out loud.

"The Archduke's illegitimate son." George Asten said with a sneer. He looked indifferently with cold eyes. King George's indifferent tone did not surprise me at all considering that Caliban was the illegitimate son of his younger brother, Freon Greyscale.

When I mentioned that Kai and Caliban were left alone in the forest with the Dragon, I noticed that the King did not seem fazed at all. He seems a little...relieved? Maybe he thought that he was finally getting rid of Caliban who tainted his royal bloodline with his commoner blood.

"Ah! I remember now, he is your little nephew. How long has it been since I last saw him?" Hades Silvan exclaimed.

All of a sudden my other older brother, Zale stepped forward.

"Father, the Kingdom of Asten only have 1/3 of the royal knights left in this location. The Commander of the Royal Knights, Dayton Cascade, and the Captain of the Royal Knights Helios Rician, are exhausted from aiding Asher's and Rowan's team back here. They extended too much mana. The rest of the royal knights that are left here are new recruits and have not undergone the right amount of training for such a tedious task. Plus, the other 2/3 of the royal knights have not come back from escorting to the nobles that attended the royal hunt yet." Zale said. "So, Father, please let me go and rescue my younger brother," Zale said with a serious expression.

Before King Hades could say anything, Perseus who had stood next to my side stepped forward unexpectedly. Perseus followed suit of what his older brother Zale did. He kneeled in respect for his father and said, "Father, please allow me to accompany Zale," Perseus said with burning eyes of determination.

Not to be outdone, I too, stepped forward.

"Father," I began, "I want to join the rescue team to save Kai and Caliban."

Both the King of Silvan and the King of Asten looked shocked at our sudden display.

Emperor Dylan of the Rain Empire who was watching everything from the sidelines chuckled. Emperor Dylan looked towards King Hades Silvan.

"Hades, you have such loyal and filial sons." He joked.

Hades just shook his head.

"Alright then. Zale, Perseus, and Rowan shall be the team to rescue my son, Kai, and the Freon Greyscale illegitimate son, Caliban." Hades said.

I looked towards Zale and Perseus and we nodded at each other. Just before we were about to depart, a voice suddenly rang out.

"I volunteer!"

(A/N: I volunteer as tribute!)

I looked towards the source of the voice.

It was a young man who stood at 6 feet 2 inches. The man had dark red hair. His face was partly covered with a mask and he had a sword on his side. If I was not mistaken, then this man should be Felix Arna, the Crown Prince of the Arna Kingdom.

Felix Arna was very famous. He was so famous that there was not a single person in all four kingdoms who did not know him. Felix Arna was only 17 years old and at the young age of 14, he graduated top of his grade from the prestigious Noble Academy located in the Kingdom of Arna.

He was exceptionally skilled with his sword and was hailed by all as a genius. He was a jack of all trades. Despite being the 6th son, the King of the Arna Kingdom proclaimed him as the Crown Prince.

However, a few weeks ago, it was rumored that he was badly disfigured when he was fighting against the 5 demons. It did not help to dispel the rumors since Felix always wore a mask after the initial fight. Furthermore, it seems like Felix's past was much more complicated than meets the eye. Although it is only known by the King of Arna, Felix grew up in the slums.

The reason why I know this is because before I reincarnated into this world, the reincarnation goddess along with a cheat skill gave me various details about this world. Thus, I know that Felix grew up in the slums and only recently arrived at the castle when he was 12 years old.

No one, not even the Queen herself knows of this fact except for King Hades.

You may be wondering why it is quite simple as a matter of fact.

When the 6th prince was younger, he was sickly which is why the Queen and his 5 elder brothers doted on him so much. However, when the Queen was visited her family, Felix had a sudden fever and died. The King knew that if it was revealed that their youngest son died, his wife would grow mad with grief and despair, so he did the next best thing he could do.

He pretended that Felix was fine while at the same time searching for someone to take Felix's place. One time, he heard the news that there was a look-alike, so he decided to see him himself. He was shocked to see a boy who looked like his dead son.

The young boy did not have a name and was very poor so when the King offered him riches and wealth beyond his imagination, with nothing else to lose the boy agreed.

Thus overnight, he became the youngest prince of the nation and gained immense wealth and love from both his older brothers and mother. After growing to love them like his own family, the boy, now named Felix Arna vowed to never let them down. Thus he began to study all day to make his family proud.

That is how the number 1 genius praised by all four Great Kingdoms came to be.

Now, why would such an esteemed person like himself suddenly volunteer?

Felix was very sus.

"Good, the more the merrier!" My father said with approval.

King George agreed to our arrangement and summoned the Grand Magician.

The grand magician was an old man of about 80 years old. He was wearing yellow robes and he was leaning on his cane. The grand magician said, "We can not locate Caliban or Kai. We lost connection with cameras and the monitoring system. I would have to teleport you four to the nearest location where last picked up a signal from the tracking device. Prince Rowan, take this teleportation crystal." I took it.

You see, while it is fairly easy to chant a teleportation spell for someone like the Grand Magician, it is difficult for us students or those who will lower mana levels to chant the spell because it consumes too much mana.

That is why the blacksmith and jewelers forged the teleportation crystal using the mana crystals. The teleportation crystal served the same purpose as a regular teleportation spell. However, teleportation crystals were rare and cost quite a lot of money due to the high difficulty and skill it takes for a blacksmith and jeweler to forge.

When he saw that we were ready, the grand magician chanted the teleportation spell and soon a blue-ish portal opened.

Zale and Perseus then looked over at me. "Don't worry little brother, we will help you bring home our youngest brother." With that said, they then jumped into the portal to rescue Kai and Caliban from the high-level dragon.

Next was Prince Felix and then it was my turn to step through the portal.

I exited the portal and saw three silhouettes whom I know were Zale, Perseus, and Felix. I walked towards us and looked around. The portal should have teleported us to the general location of where Caliban and Kai were before the monitoring system went down.

We were in the forest and trees, and shrubs were blocking our path. We heard a loud boom that seemed to be very close. We looked at each other and ran towards the sound.

Zale and Felix quickly hacked down the tree branches that were blocking our way with their swords. Perseus and I followed in close pursuit. After a few minutes, we finally made our way to a clearance. Zale, Perseus, Felix, and I ran towards it.

I gasped at the battle scene. There was a huge crater in the earth like someone set off a bomb. There was rumble everywhere and the trees next to the crater were destroyed and burnt. Next to the side of the crater was the dead body of the dragon. All that was left was the dragon's bones and the Dragon's beast core.

The blast was very powerful. Although the blast did not completely dissolve the Dragon's bones or beast core, you could see the damage it provided.

The Dragon's beast core and its bones are said to be the strongest substance in this world, only second to the Emperor of Heaven's Soul Sword.

At the center of the crater was...Caliban?!?!?

I froze when I saw Caliban. He looked somewhat different than before. A drastic change occurred to Caliban in only a day since I separated from him.

The left side of his face seemed to be partially covered with black runes and his black hair seemed to be darker than before. His ruby red eyes were glowing and he stared intently at something below him. However, I was distracted by something behind Caliban. Behind his back were a pair of black wings!!!

Black wings?!? Don't tell me...is Caliban a fallen angel or perhaps he was the son of one? Why did the Goddess of Reincarnation not tell me this?

My hands trembled when I saw what Caliban was staring at so intently.

Caliban was kneeling on his knees, tears streaming down his face. He seemed to be holding someone. It was Kai. The four of us approached him cautiously, I felt my heart drop and my blood turns cold.

No, this couldn't be.

Caliban was holding Kai tightly in his embrace but I could still make out Kai's appearance. His clothes were soaked in his blood, and his shirt was ripped from the dragon's talons. The cut was so deep that you could see his bones.

Kai's face was extremely pale and his eyes were closed. His lips were a dull pink and his chest no longer rose.

"Little Brother!" I heard Perseus exclaim as he rushed towards Kai, however, I held him back.

He looked at me with a question expression but I just shook my head. Then I looked towards Zale and Felix and they understood that I did not want them to come near Kai.

I walked closer to where Caliban and Kai were and we were out of earshot from where Zale, Perseus, and Felix stood. I kneeled next to Caliban and as I looked closer at Kai, I realized something. His chest was no longer rising and falling from breathing. Kai was dead.

I let out a shaking hand towards Kai's lifeless body. As I did so, Caliban looked at me with grief evident in his eyes.

"I never told him I loved him," Caliban said with a cracking voice.

I reattracted my hand and I felt my throat close up from sadness.

"Caliban, leave him," I said.

Caliban's red eyes widened in disbelief.

"Never, what are you doing?!" He yelled at me, hugging Kai's dead body closer to him.

"I'm trying to bring him back from the dead," I said simply which gave Caliban quite the shock.

Using his shock to my advantage, I gently pushed Caliban away, and I blocked my brother's and Felix's view with my body. I sliced my hand with my dagger and parted Kai's lips to let some of my blood drips into Kai's mouth.

As soon as the first drop of blood landed in Kai's mouth, Kai sucked in a deep breath of air and started to cough.

"Did you just-?"

Knowing what he was going to say, I said to Caliban, "Bring him back to life? Yes, I did."

I could tell that Caliban wanted to interrogate me, but he ignored me and focused all of his attention on Kai.

Kai regained some color into his face, and he no longer looked like he was dead.

The reason why I was able to bring Kai back from the dead was because of the cheat skill that the goddess of reincarnation granted me before I reincarnated into this world.

The cheat skill that I wished for was to bring back a person from the dead. The goddess told me to just let the person that I wished to save ingest my blood but I could only use this skill once. After Kai died in my original world, I felt like I needed to have this skill just in case.

Turns out, I was right. I did need it.

Although Kai is the child of darkness, meaning that he was blessed by the God of Death, Jace, I knew that Jace could not directly interfere with his fate. Jace Nightshadow only had the authority over total darkness and the authority over the underworld. Jace was the God of Death who ruled over the Underworld, reigning as the Supreme King. Jace was unlike all of the other gods.

He was the only god since the creation of the universe to live in the Underworld and has never set a single foot in Heaven.

In the book, after the awakening of The Demon King, and blessing the Demon King with the darkness ability, Jace disappeared into his what he called home, the eternal darkness.

The eternal darkness was located in the Underworld, hidden deep in the depths of it where only the darkest of souls lived. The eternal darkness was the capital of the Underworld and it also served as a Palace for Jace.

The Demon King did not mess with his benefactor and simply traveled to the center of the Underworld to build his castle and thus the Demon King ruled the Underworld, and the demons forgot their original ruler, the Supreme King of the Underworld, Jace.

And Jace did not mind. He was simply tired from ruling the Underworld for so long that he let the Demon King rule in his stead and he stood on the sidelines, enjoying the show which was the 2nd Holy War between Demons and Humans.

I was yeeted out of my thoughts when I saw Caliban slump forward and almost fell onto Kai, however, a slender white hand shot out to catch him.

The man had long white hair and dark red eyes. He was wearing all black and I instantly knew who he was.

It was Jace Nightshadow.

"Dumbass." I heard Jace muttered.

Behind me, I heard Perseus, Zale, and Felix gasp.

They were wondering who was this man and how did he suddenly appear.

"It's you!" Felix yelled in recognition.

Jace turned around and smirked at Felix, still holding Caliban to prevent him from falling onto Kai.

"Yes, it's me."