“Dad!” Raveria zipped around the snowy mountain and threw snowballs at Ira who would easily evade or block them.

As soon as he reached down to form his own, Raveria would run away as fast as she could while giggling.

It sounded like a normal scene if it wasn’t for the fact that Raveria could throw hundreds of snowballs in less than a minute and Ira would wave them away with the wind.

“I’ll get you.”

“Just watch.”

“You can’t dodge these.”

Three Raveria’s spoke as they circled around Ira. Since nearly all of her abilities carried over to her temporal clones, they were able to literally throw thousands of snowballs at Ira in a short amount of time. It was less like a flurry of snowballs and more like a wall of snow that was flying toward Ira. He exhaled deeply and a gust of wind billowed from his lungs which blew apart all of the snow.

“You have to try harder than that, Ria.” Ira laughed triumphantly.

He held off on using his spatial related abilities to make it easier for Raveria but that was as much as he was willing to do. Even if they were just playing around he thought it would be good if Raveria was able to explore her own abilities.

“But you can’t hit me!” Raveria stuck her tongue out as she absorbed her Temporal clones.

“You wanna bet?” Ira made a snowball. He pulled his arm back and then launched at a speed impossible for normal eyes to track.

Raveria tilted her body to the side and dodge before laughing. “Told you, Dad.”

All of a sudden snow fell from a branch above her and landed on her head.

“See.” Ira chuckled as he approached his daughter.

Raveria’s precognitive abilities seemed to weaken when she placed all of her focus on one thing. Ira figured she would need to learn how to react naturally instead of actively and it would be better for her learn through experience.

“You cheated,” Raveria pouted as Ira ruffled her hair.

"Yeah, yeah." He waved his hand and produced a small black hooded cape which he tied around her.

“I’m not cold.” Raveria tried to stop him but his hands didn’t budge.

“You can never be too safe.” He was about to reach for her sandals but she huddled down and shook her head.

“Not my sandals, Dad,” Raveria grumbled.

“Well...Fine.” Ira reluctantly allowed her to continue on.

As they moved further and further up the mountain the snow and the steepness rose. And soon enough, Ira could detect a slight change in the air. It was like something was keeping an eye on the two of them out of caution. He remembered Virgil’s claim about spirits being more present in the mountain range but even so, there was nothing for him to worry about. Still, he couldn’t relax completely since Raveria was present.

Raveria was unaware of the subtle changes in the atmosphere and continued to run around. She would stop to build little snow sculptures every few moments before leaving them behind. Since it didn’t take her long to create them, there was a whole lineup of deformed and weirdly-shaped snow people along with something that was supposed to be a wolf but it had horns and stood on two feet.

“Wait, is that supposed to be me?” Ira asked as he examined all of Raveria’s works.

“Yup,” Raveria answered. Then she made an odd expression that seemed to ask ‘Is there something wrong with it?’

“It’s perfect!” Ira smiled as he looked at the malformed twig-like legs and the burly uneven arms.

Raveria hummed with pride and then resumed making her “perfect” snow sculptures.

…

After a few hours, the two of them approached a large cave with an ominous look about it. There were skeletal remains of monsters half-covered by the snow in front of the entrance. The obvious warning sign caused Ira to stop.

“Hold on, Ria,” Ira called out to Raveria and caused her to end her happy march.

“Hmm?” Raveria turned around and faced him.

Ira narrowed his eyes toward the cave and then spoke, “If you’re in there you should come out before I come in.”

He spoke lightly but the wind carried his voice into the depths of the cave.

After a few seconds, a reply came back, “Leave this place, insolent one! I know not of mercy so my warning will be the first and last you are given.”

Ira briefly contemplated before he looked at Raveria who met his gaze with a puzzled expression. “Stay right here, Ria.”

Ira rolled up his sleeves before he lowered his body and leaped forward with a massive burst of strength though he took care not to let it harm Raveria.

“Who dares?! Heuk!” The owner of the voice made a peculiar sound and then the ground rumbled.

Suddenly, the huge body of a dragon flew...no was thrown out of the cave and ended up rolling down the mountain while leaving a huge crater in its wake.

“Woah!” Raveria jumped excitedly and began clapping as she watched the scene take place.

“Not too bad, right?” Ira reappeared at the entrance and stood next to Raveria.

“Again! Again!” Raveria giggled.

“Alright, if you want.” Ira sighed while wondering if it was bad to spoil his daughter too much.

The dragon with blueish ice-like scales rose from the ground while roaring loudly.

“You appear to be formidable, but you will not be able to defeat me.” It spoke with a seriousness that contrasted the miserable appearance of a ragdoll it had earlier.

Ira teleported in front of the dragon and spoke in a low whisper, “If you play along it would go a bit easier, so what do you say?”

Being a dragon that was hundreds of years old it would obviously refuse. “How dare you–” It’s unfortunate that Ira didn’t let it finish and grabbed it by the tail before swinging it in the air.

Raveria cheered happily which caused Ira to slam the dragon into the ground repeatedly. The dragon let out painful groans and eventually, Ira’s assault stopped. When he was done, the dragon was covered in blood that flowed between its shattered scales while its broken horns no longer pointed to the sky with dignity.

“Hey…” Ira suddenly had a thought. “Have you seen any Lares around here?”

“...The ones you’re looking for made their home further north.” By now it was apparent Ira was far stronger than the dragon was so it gave up any thoughts of resisting.

“Ah, I see.” Ira tapped the dragon’s body in a friendly manner before walking toward Raveria. All of a sudden, he stopped moving and turned around.

“Are you a male or female? It’s sometimes hard to tell with dragons.” Ira’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“I...am a male.” The dragon felt as if it was in danger but was forced to answer under the increasing pressure of Ira’s gaze.

“And can you take a human form?” Ira asked with a growing smile.

“...Yes,” The Dragon replied.

“Good, then I’ll have to ask for a favor if you don’t mind.” Ira laughed in a friendly manner. He waved his hand and summoned the black book before tearing a piece of blank paper out of it. By now, it was clear his intentions were to form a soul contract.

…

The Moon Temple in the Underground City has ceased its intake of kids but nonetheless, there were a few priests and scribes on standby while the others integrated the children who had arrived. There was a scribe praying at a nearby altar when a man appeared out of thin air. He had androgynous features which didn’t conflict with each other and gave him a very handsome appearance overall. The man’s hair and eyes were a dark blue that was uncommon for the continent of Milneria, but his reptilian features told of his origins almost immediately. All he wore on his body was a tattered cloth that hung to his ankles. He looked at the Dark Elf scribe with an expression that illustrated his broken pride.

“...I was sent by someone who called himself the Keeper.” The man spoke quietly while slightly trembling.

When Ira asked him to make a soul contract, he immediately refused and said it would better to die. That was until Ira trapped him under a layer of space for a few minutes. The sensation of being cut off from every possible sensation threw him into a fearful panic and once he was released he caved in and agreed. Then, a shard of black mist flew into his chest and he immediately felt regret. Although Ira assured him he would have to marry into a family of Valkyries he had never heard of, he would end up being nothing more than a slave.

“The Keeper sent you? Did he provide any additional instructions?” The scribe inquired politely.

“That...I was…” The man trailed off into a whisper.

“I’m sorry, but could you speak up?” The scribed asked patiently.

“That I was to...marry...a Valkyrie from the...Thynne family.” The man looked broken as he finished speaking.

“Wonderful, I’ll send word right away.” The scribe clapsed his hands in pure joy. He was so happy that he didn’t notice the tearful expression on the face of the man.

“I’ll wait...here.” The man fell to the ground while looking devastated.

…

Back in the mountain range, Ira walked through the waist deep snow while Raveria managed to stay above it.

“Dad?” Raveria’s voice called out.

“Yes?” Ira couldn’t help but grin.

“Why did that dragon look sad?” Raveria asked curiously.

“He wasn’t sad, Ria.” Ira shook his head.

“He wasn’t?”

“Not at all. Sometimes people get so happy that they cry so they look sad,” Ira explained.

“Were you ever so happy that you wanted to cry?”

Ira picked up Raveria and thought back to when he first saw her, “Yes...and I did cry a little after I saw you for the first time.”

“Really?!” Raveria giggled with glee.

“Yeah, I couldn’t help it. You’re just so perfect.” Ira grabbed Raveria and tickled her.

“Stop!” Raveria cackled wildly. Her face began to turn red from all of the laughter and Ira stopped while smiling. He carried Raveria on his back and climbed to the peak of a mountain.

“That looks like the place.” Ira pointed to a snow-covered structure in the distance.

It resembled something of a monastery and a large fire burned on a large balcony that sat on the outside of the structure. Since someone had to be around to tend to the fire it was obviously inhabited.

“Over there?” Raveria squinted her eyes and peered into the distance.

“Yeah.” Ira restrained his aggression as much as he could but it still appeared in his eyes.

“Let’s pay them a visit.” Ira jumped into the air and let the wind carry them forward. Raveria didn’t know what was going to happen but she still got excited.