Recap

Based from the angle we dug and from the clear bottle of water, we were currently almost below midpoint of the curve that we planned to dig.

Somehow, I felt like I heard something different.

"Wait, stop."

I stopped spinning the earth drill, and examined what was in front of us using Soul Control.

"Did you hear that?" Aunt asked Three, but she only shrugged her shoulders.

"I think there's something near."

I slowly spun the earth drill, and it dug out large chunks of earth until I could see a blue light shimmering from below.

There was a small gap after where the earth drill displaced, and it looked like there were pieces of furniture inside.

"Is that a room?" Three tugged on my shoulder as she peeked from behind.

"I'm not sure what it is, but I wanna have a look."

"I'm going in too!" Three followed as I jumped inside the hole, and I felt my heart thump as soon as I discovered what was underneath.

Why is she here?

"Mom?"

Her hair was longer, and there were dark circles under her eyes. She looked healthy as her muscles have yet to have been drooped because of possible inactivity, but it seemed like she already stayed in this place for a long time based from how her clothes were worn out.

"K-Kaff!? Who's that girl... Arc!? Why are you two here!?"

I was so speechless that I only ran towards her before tightly embracing her in my grasp.

"Pisa-sis..."

...

***

The room Pisa was in was composed of a blue translucent crystal which glowed in bluish white light. Besides from serving as the main material for the floors, walls, and the ceiling, it also served as the light source that lighted up the whole room.

What should have been a happy reunion became a complicated one.

"How and why are you here?" After caressing Kaff's head for a bit, Pisa asked the other two girls behind him.

"Pisa-sis, brother... He---"

"Let me... Let me tell everything."

"Tell what, Kaff?"

"Mom... Dad is gone."

Pisa's expression froze for an instant, before her happy face turned grim and expressionless.

"Just as I thought... Let me know at least why."

From her words, it could be said that she had already expected bad news regarding Meltor, and the way she quickly responded only further implied that thought.

Three glanced all around the blue room and then started.

"It's going to be a long story, miss. We should get you out for now instead of being locked up in here."

"Three's right. You haven't met her yet, right? She's the one that helped me how to read." Kaff told Pisa with a smile, and he injected a few wisps of light on Pisa's body.

Arc then jumped up at the hole that they made and handed her hand towards the hole.

"Upsie-daisy ho!" Arc pulled Pisa upwards, and everyone managed to go back the way they came.

"What should we do about the hole?" Three asked and glanced at them.

"Is it safe if we cover it up, Mom?"

"Yeah, it's fine. You could also leave it open, it doesn't matter." She took a look around the small space that the three were currently in and asked.

"Where's the hole you came in from?" Her eyes suddenly glowed as she anticipated for an answer from the three while she inspected the two earth drill constructs on the side as if she was so curious about the matter. The drills were twice as large as her and the hole they were in was enough to fill in about nine people inside.

"We used these." Kaff covered up the hole as he replied and pointed with his other hand on the earth drills then continued, "it also leaves up some earth behind as it digs, so we're actually just shifting whatever's in front, towards the back."

"So, you're Three?" She glanced towards Three with a hand on hip, which was also curiously observing Pisa in return.

"Yes, miss. How should I call you? Sister? Aunt?"

"Meh. Just call me mom just like Kaff does. You're near the same age, right?"

"M-Mo... but... Is that really alright?"

Three's cheeks had a slight hint of red on it as she replied. The two women who saw this had the same grin on their faces as if their brains were on the same wavelength.

"It's done. We can continue digging now. Three?"

"Yes, yes, let's go...!"

Three sped up her earth drill without Kaff and they were left behind. Kaff followed after her as he questioned what happened in his mind.

With the two advancing forwards, the two women were quietly following behind the youths as they started to chat with each other in expressionless faces and hushed voices.

"What happened, Arc? I thought I told you to take care of Kaff...!"

"I did. That's why we're here."

"Quick. Tell me before he does, or he'll be able to see me in a bad way."

"He's matured more than you think, sis. I'll tell you things from my side."

Pisa became silent as Arc started to narrate as they walked behind the two.

"From the day we left Illa, he had been preparing for departure as well. He was so prepared that even I had a bit of trouble following him all around."

"Okay... Then?"

"We met a girl with a weird red clothing that almost looked like a robe, but it didn't. It was made of some strange material, and she was actually a demon without us knowing."

"A DE---mmhh!"

"Aunt? How is our angle?"

"Here, check it!"

Arc threw the bottle of water towards Kaff and resumed her tale.

"We didn't know it at first, but he somehow became friends with this girl. He probably even liked him if I'm not wrong."

"But how... Okay, just continue."

"That's because she hid her magic so well, that she could even challenge me to a fight back then. But now... Heh."

"Enough bragging. Then?."

"We reached Phione and there were lines of soldiers on the borders, some were even hidden. We were supposed to stop by to get more items for our travel, and then the girl let us know that if we planned to go to the north where brother was, we should bring Flame Orbs."

"There are a lot of those here in the south. Then, how did it go?"

"It took me a whole day without fruit, but Kaff somehow got one. I could only see it from a high roof, but he somehow challenged a Vermilion Flame Bird and still survived. I was prepared to attack back then but it seemed like the guy knew him."

"That's probably the same one he encountered when he visited Lipi village."

"After that, the man-bird gave him two sets of Flame Orbs before going back to the his...base I think? Seeing him safe I decided to buy some goods we can use while cooking. After that I can't remember much, but the little girl accompanied us towards the north..... near... what was that place again? Labbi?"

"LA---"

"Aunt, here's the water bottle." Kaff handed the bottle to Arc as if nothing happened.

Three glanced over the two behind who widely grinned, and slowly moved her eyes away.

"Kid, those two look like they're talking about something important."

"That's fine. As long as we're all safe, that's all that matters."

"You're surprisingly... aware, and calm."

"I'm just happy that I found my mother still alive... it makes me wonder about your mother too, Three."

"I knew you'd say that. Just know that she's somewhere out of reach right now."

From her words, Kaff could only wryly smile and assumed a not-so-good scenario before focusing at the task at hand.

"That little girl could actually fight. We met a Lightning Tiger on the way, and she was on par with me as we attacked the beast. After that we ascended the mountains and finally reached near the summit after a few weeks."

"Summit of... don't tell me. The Trinity Mountains?"

"Exactly. She made us go through a shortcut to reach brother at the fort where the battle had begun, but things were... so unexpected. We first met a god or a legend that spared our lives because of your boy, and I dunno what he did but we're still strangely alive even after threatening our lives. Even the little girl of course, she was shivering in fear from what happened."

"You seem to dislike the girl for some reason, do you actually know her?"

"Nope, but I can't think of a reason, though."

"Okay, continue..."

"After that, the little girl told him that we're almost near so he just went off below the peak and I followed. Somehow the little girl didn't follow for a while, before we almost met our end."

"Met our end? What happened!?"

"Aunt, how's the angle? I think we're almost at the middle now."

Arc checked the bottle before replying towards Kaff.

"Sure, you can adjust the drill now."

"Three, how much could you estimate from the time we took?"

The two youths tried to evaluate how their tunnel was going by using math calculations as they dug, and Arc continued to tell her tale.

"An arrow drill suddenly shot towards our direction. It even went through Kaff's barrier which was strong enough to protect us from mages. I took a look at how he's doing, and he accepted it just like that and probably lowered his barrier's usage just enough to block the snowy winds. Then it was crazy. He made a different version of that very arrow drill before firing it towards the distance.

The little girl also reinforced us after a while, and he took out the enemies from the sides as I protected Kaff from the front. If she didn't appear, then we might have been surrounded in the worse case."

"You keep saying little girl, but how high is she really?"

"...maybe just around my shoulder."

"Okay... what happened next?"

"We thought it was over, and I swapped positions with the little girl... and Kaff collapsed after firing that arrow drill. He probably overused something within him and temporarily sat straight before I saw the girl help him by pouring red light... at that point I thought she was really a demon, but I discarded the thought as she looked so human, acted like human, and was also... much more like a human than the beasts and demons that I've initially fought.

I can't believe myself that she actually was human-like that my senses almost dulled me, and that's when I reached the other side and accidentally alarmed the enemies, sending more towards us. I knew it was my fault, and so I executed the most powerful skill I currently had at that time... Forlorn's Might.

It took quite a lot from me, and the little girl protected me even when I was like that to her, or maybe it's because we both wanted to protect Kaff that she even sufferred countless injuries as I gathered enough sword force to wipe everyone down.

Sadly, there was a demon that was much stronger and faster than us, and I only took out one of his red orbs before I..."

"So it's highly likely that Kaff got stronger again if he's the one that defeated that demon, then?"

"Yeah. How much more he could grow, I'm not sure. I'm sure that I only woke up after a certain period of time, and it looks like Kaff had healed my injuries too. After that my senses went on and off for a while before I partially overcame my lethargy and ate.

I can't remember much details after that, but I felt the same sensation from when we were at the peak once more, and thought that that unknown guy had passed by again but it was different. They were outside, and were looking at a blizzard towards the distance.

I'm not sure how I'll be able to describe what happened, but we somehow flied after a few bursts of force that Kaff and the girl made, and reached the center of the blizzard.

Poof.

I only got stunned to see brother and the Void Empress inside a light that made them float upwards."

"WHAT!? That..."

The two glanced towards the workers in front and from the way they dug, Kaff most likely didn't hear Pisa's loud exclamation.

"That's weird. Okay, continue..."

"It seems Pisa-sis really did know Yona-sis from before."

"Yona-sis, huh? She's more like a witch to me, but yeah."

"Yona-sis told us a shocking revelation about the god marks, and whatever they were trying to do inside that light.

But before she could explain further..."

"A spear hit Kirllia on the chest, instantly penetrating her. The way her eyes looked at me and how her hair slowly fell down... Every detail is still imprinted on my mind until this day."

Kaff somehow stopped digging and faced towards the two women.

"I knew it." Three also stopped and followed suit.

"Kirllia vanished in a flicker. Not a wisp of her remained. I went to that place later to recover the dagger that she used, but... even that was nowhere to be found."

"Kaff..."

"Let me continue, Aunt. Next thing, I was half-beaten to death by a knight. He broke one of my arms and didn't relent as I struggled to fight. Aunt was knocked out before even the fight actually started."

"---Well, that's true."

"I wasn't able to do anything. I also lost consciousness after that. It was only master that remained, and she spared everyone from that battle. The knight, the golden-armored general, Virol..." He glanced at Three before saying the last person involved.

"Even William Flairfly." With that, Three's eyes narrowed as she knew everything already.