“How are they?” Anya pced a cup of hot tea before Xendar, who was sitting in his study, reading the different reports from the scouting parties.

  “The kids or the reports?”

  “Both,” she smiled as she sat down in his p, leaning against his chest.

  “The kids are fine. That little imp we made has too much energy to be kept down. After a bath and hot food, she was up and running again as if nothing had happened.”

  “Ahaha, she reminds me of somebody~!”

  “Yeah, yeah! We don’t need to worry too much." He chuckled, stroking her hair, "They became strong. The only question is what will happen with their tribution.”

  “Hopefully, it will be fine.”

  “Knowing Ren, it will be.” Xendar nodded, putting down the papers, holding his wife closer to him.

  “And the reports?”

  “Bad." He groaned, "I called back everyone immediately, but we still lost two scouting parties deep within the forest. There has been no contact with them for days now... Probably dead, and whatever killed them is coming this way.”

  “Is it the horde that we were expecting?”

  “No. I don’t think so." He answered after thinking about it, "If it were, we would’ve lost all scouts without having a chance to establish contact with them. This is probably a reaction to me squashing that bug. I expected that much! The question is, which tribe is it, and what countermeasure should we take?”

  “We can defend this position pretty well. We just need to hold out.” Anya thought out loud.

  “That is the easy route. I’m thinking more along the lines of... How could I turn this to our advantage?”

  “You want to exterminate them?” She asked her husband, feeling surprised.

  “That would be ideal." He nodded, "This is probably one of the more hot-headed reactions from a tribe, which means they are the main troublemakers here. We could set up a perfect trap, luring them to where we want, then striking them down. Maybe that will finally give us some peace.”

  “But it will be a bloodbath. From all we know from the fairies, the tribes, the further you go into this cursed nd, the stronger the demons get. Their evolved variants may easily put up a fight with you or could outnumber you...”

  “I wouldn’t worry about them interfering." He muttered, "Those are experienced demons. They won’t act like this. From all the reactions I have been observing, they learned a lot from us and generally acted as I thought neighboring countries would do, when we attack someone they don't like. They just watch... and will only interfere if we press into their territories, their allies. Feynor was right... With those kinds of people, we can reason. The others… are a hindrance to both them and to us.”

  “What are you trying to say?” Anya asked, mulling over his words a little.

  “Not just me, who says this. Feynor and Dermitos have the same thoughts, and I completely agree with them. More than two millennia ago, they started to grow and evolve. They reached a point in civilization where they are ready to take those steps we did four or five thousand years ago. After we deal with the barbarians, we can finally sit down and talk.”

  “Are you saying they are on the verge of forming their own civilization? To... do... diplomacy?”

  “Probably already did that hundreds of years ago!" He shrugged, "Now they are trying to see who comes out on top. That is my best guess. For one part, it’s pure specution, but still, it has logic behind it. It would expin a lot of behavioral changes… and it’s my gut feeling too,” he said as he id out a map, showing the Swordscar Pass with red circles drawn on it at different points. “We destroyed seven bridges. All of them were guarded by the same scorpion-like demon folk that Ren’s team encountered. One of the bridges was already built from stone and guarded by three, presumably their best warriors... That crossing point was only successfully taken down when Ultar personally intervened. Still, two of the three scorpions escaped. As for the clues... What they retrieved showed that the whole operation was pnned and organized by these scorpions! Or it seemed at first. Was it their idea, or did they follow orders? We don’t know yet, but the materials used were determined to be from the Wall of the World, from far up North. It’s too far away, so probably, it was mined and processed by other kinds of demon folk, transported by another tribe here, then built by the scorpions. Or were they only responsible for guarding it? We won’t know.”

  “So they have some kind of civilized structure,” Anya whispered.

  “I would bet my life on it! I guess there are stronger tribes that took control, going by the baseline, animalistic nature of the demons. They should not have an empire-like structure yet, as we do… but probably the more evolved tribes have some kind of cooperation going on, instead of killing one another while pressuring smaller ones into servitude. It’s just unknown whether a decision has already been made on which tribe will come out on top, unifying the whole forest, or if they are still fighting for the ultimate control. We don’t even know how many tribes there are.”

  “Going by your logic, Dear,” she said after a long silence, thinking it through while Xendar took small sips from his cup, “the previous raids by lower-level demons were some kind of special culling? Isn’t that what they always do? Their numbers swell, and then they trim them by sending them in droves against us, humans.”

  “I would call it their way to deal with their unruly ones. The lesser tribes are probably numerous, but they have not evolved yet, simir to the bugs from before. They had big numbers, yes, but they were small and retively weak, with few evolved leaders. They can probably outbreed the evolved demons, which is a bad outlook, as resources are still finite. Plus, the ones who are seemingly coming for us, the aggressive kind that acts before thinking… Aren’t these types of creatures standing in the way of their progress?”

  “So they are using us to weed out their internal opposition? Is that what you are saying?”

  “Probably. They are using these tribes neighboring us and the Kingdom of Ten as cannon fodder, which could hinder their goal of unification. They can preserve their forces while weakening their opposition, and at the same time, they exhaust us. No matter how you look at it, it's a perfect outcome. If the stronger ones here are gone... they can also move in, unhindered.”

  “Aren’t you giving them too much credit?” Anya chuckled softly.

  “Don’t look down at them. Never do that!" He warned her, "They are strong and intelligent. They are not inferior to us in any way! What we encounter here at the edge are the lowlifes... It would be like if you form an opinion about the capital by only visiting the Cheese District’s brothels.”

  “Idiot…” she giggled, pecking his lips. “So that you know, your daughter unified that district.”

  “She did? Why didn’t you mention it before?” Xendar asked, but was not too surprised, beginning to ugh.

  “Because she only made it possible, not doing it herself. Anyway, that girl, with the red hair, who follows her around, is the adopted daughter of Boursat, and now he rules the district with an iron fist. The crime rate has fallen so low that people are moving in voluntarily, bringing some business to the inhabitants.”

  “Hah! Good!” Xendar ughed again with a proud voice. “It is best if the home base is clear and safe while a storm is gathering in the North! It should still take years, decades, or even centuries, but the forest will unify one day… and when it does, we will have a powerful neighbor. What it will bring to us is still not clear... I just hope Feynor will succeed because if we can’t establish a good connection in time… and speak with fists instead of words, we could propagate who knows how many generations of conflicts.”

  “Then why did you retake this fortress?” Anya blinked her eyes mischievously.

  “We need good cards in our hands if we want to sit at the same table… Also, doesn't this ensure that my name is in the history books ter on? That's pretty good, no?”

  “Bad boy…” she sighed as she kissed his lips, slowly climbing over him.

  “Who is the bad one here, I wonder…” he murmured while enjoying the soft lips, slowly pressing his hands under her blouse…

  …….…..

  “Wrong. Again!” came the commanding voice after a loud whacking sound.

  “Ugh.. okay…” Ren murmured as she now sprouted a second bump on her head. Currently, she was wearing a training outfit, standing on top of Cath's Door, practicing with a heavy spear that glittered in a strong, metallic luster under the sun.

  “You became sloppy with your movements. The thrusting motion is all wrong! Do it again!” Xendar nded the thick rod on her body again, correcting her stance and making Ren repeat her moves over and over.

  “Ahaha, it’s good to see the roles being reversed!” Isha giggled, sitting next to Zern, who was still bandaged but with a healthy expression.

  “Now I know where Master got her training methods from.” Poli nodded, feeling enlightened.

  “You got it easy.” Leinor sighed, remembering their sparring sessions, which sometimes left him with broken limbs.

  “It looks painful… Why does sister Ren’s father hit her so much?” Rem murmured, sitting with them, sometimes quietly floating around, looking at Xendar with fear in her eyes.

  “Nah, don’t worry about it. This is how we train most of the time.” Poli ughed, “The body remembers the pain more easily, and if you wish to avoid being hit, just do it correctly!”

  “Hauh… human training is so scary!”

  “How do you train?” Isha asked with a curious expression.

  “Um, we don’t." Rem answered, a bit confused, "When we are young, we fly from flower to flower and dance with our parents while pying! And… it just happens!”

  “Naturally? Like, you don’t even cultivate?” She asked, her mouth hanging open.

  “The training… um… no, we are not… When we grow up, we just dance with the young and each other while pying!" She nodded, smiling, "Having fun and friends is the best! Why would we try to hurt others?”

  Leinor only sighed while Isha gently pulled the tiny red fairy into her p, stroking her head, which she very much enjoyed, happily squirming around, pushing her face against Isha’s palm, acting like a spoiled cat.

  “Stop!” Xendar commanded, letting Ren rest a little.

  “Haaah!” She let go of the spear that, with a loud thump, nded on the ground and shook the tiles a little, proving its weight. “That felt good!”

  “How far are you?” Xendar came up, gently stroking the bumps on her head.

  “Ouch, careful!” Ren giggled while putting on a thinking expression, “If I want to try it, I could do it… it’s… I still have difficulties calling forth my lightning... my mastery over my affinity is not perfect yet. I want to be able to call forth lightning and thunder by just thinking about it!”

  “Then don’t do it yet." Xendar agreed, "I also waited a few decades before attempting, to the point where I knew I was ready.”

  “That's my pn; it's… just….”

  “Just?”

  “The fights we had." She groaned, "We are strong, way stronger than others at the same level. Those who ascended at a low level also do not pose that big of a threat… yet still... Those wasps almost killed us,” she said, pying with her hair.

  “They were outnumbering you. By the hundreds!” he crouched down, smilingly, wiping away the sweat from his daughter’s face. “You were exhausted. Of course, you couldn’t put up a correct fight, don’t stress about it that much! What you can do is not something that anyone can replicate. Usually, at most, someone in the Body Refinement Realm can fight to a tie with someone at a higher stage… But to skip multiple stages? Or even realms? No way. Your group already killed a demon folk who evolved! Survived the combined attack of others! What else do you want? Don’t be greedy, Ren.”

  “You so easily destroyed them...” She pouted.

  “The chasm between realms doesn’t only apply to strength. That's why those in the ninth stage need to endure nine lightning strikes to ascend, and if they do… their refinement is perfect. I am more attuned to the world than those who ascended only, let's say, enduring four, five, or six strikes. I bet you that the demons have something simir... I can feel the energy around us, manipute it smoothly, and I tell you now, you and your friends are brimming with the same wild and untapped energies as the tribution itself! When you all ascend, it will be the start of a new era! I won’t stand a chance against any of you, and I can’t wait to see you grow stronger than your father!”

  “Dad…”

  “Just don’t rush it! Wring out every drop of potential, until the st one, before ascending, because if you do, you will step onto a new level, and there is no turning back, no second chances for correcting mistakes.”

  “I’ll do that! You will be proud of me!” Ren replied proudly.

  “Ahaha, that's what I like to hear! Now come, do another set!”

  “Sure!” she nodded with renewed vigor, grabbing the spear while Poli stood up suddenly.

  “I need to get my sword and get some practice in.”

  “Wait, I’m coming too.” Leinor followed him while Rem blinked her eyes in surprise, as everybody was hurrying away.

  “I-”

  “Forget it, Zern. You sit right back!" Isha fred up all of a sudden, "Your wound is still not fully healed. We enjoy some fresh air, and I will take you back in, wash you off, then you must rest!” she commanded him, and Zern, after a bit of hesitation, just let out a small sigh.

  “Um, Mr. Zern, you should listen to your wife!” Rem nodded, saying with a concerned, innocent voice, making both of them blush, yet Isha didn’t have the will to correct her.

  What they did not know was that the calm days only continued for the weekend before the storm clouds started to gather on the horizon.