Nick and YunYun arrived at the cottage in the Royal woods early in the morning. The moment they stopped at the doorstep, Angel landed as well.

“We live here.” Nick pointed at the wooden house, “I have to run to the city and let few people know we’re alright. For the last two days I keep getting this strange feeling … anyway … you know, we were away for a long time and some of our friends might have started to worry. May be you want to rest as well? Hunt something?”

In answer to that Angel snorted and proudly stretched out his neck.

“Alright, alright! Let’s do it like this – we will meet here in the afternoon and then continue on our way.” Nick said, but Angel looked to the side and seemed to be listening to something.

“Oh? Don’t worry about that.” Nick immediately understood what eagle noticed and shouted, “Ben, come if you want to meet Angel again!”

A minute later the old hunter came out the woods.

“You’re back.” He said to Nick and YunYun, but then stopped in his tracks and looked at the huge eagle who was almost half of the size of the house behind it, “To this day I find it hard to believe what I saw back then. And even now … hello, mighty eagle! Thank you for taking care of Nick!”

Ben slightly bowed, then awkwardly smiled, waved and turned back to the woods. Only those two crazy people could casually stand by and chat with this monster. Even though he guessed Angel was harmless, at least to them, his old heart was still beating wildly from the stress.

Half an hour later Nick and YunYun were already running around the city and knocking at the doors of alchemy shops most of which were still closed. During their time in the north, they almost emptied their ingredient reserves and were in the need of restocking, especially if taken into account the place where they were going to.

“Sunshine” was obviously closed as well, therefore on the way Nick used his privileges and sent few quick notes around the city and invited his friends to meet for lunch.

The timing was right and they finished their purchases only around noon. It didn’t matter how fast their legs were, the employees of alchemy shops worked at their own pace. In addition resupplying at the markets took a long time and the two did buy a lot.

When they entered the restaurant, Mason and Chris were already there and it was not clear if they were more eager for food or to see the two travelers. Fortunately soon one after another the rest arrived. To Nick’s pleasant surprise prince Helio came as well and what surprised him even more, he walked almost hand in hand with Kate. The two still felt a bit shy around other people, but within next few minutes Nick was informed that they will soon announce their engagement.

Besides that prince had another reason to brag.

“Just as you guessed, the second of the Trinity hid in a cave system deep within the mountains in the north of the Sand kingdom, close to our border.” He said, “After few months of meticulous search, Simon Den managed to find the place and kill her. And you were right, that old freak also had some serious mutations on her body, but was still capable of running around. With her last breath she even managed to kill few of ours.”

In the end prince’s tone turned sad and he sighed, “We lost quite a few good Qi masters in that operation, but at least we managed to eliminate her.”

“Can’t we talk about something more pleasant?” Beata pouted.

Cira married away to Styx kingdom, Conny spent all her time in the Rollen estate and even Kate got ‘snatched’ away by prince Helio. The only one left was Belia, but lately she also started seeing this young general from south and the whole fashion business rested on Beata’s shoulders, in fact, she even considered to give up on the whole thing because it stopped being fun without the other ‘flowers’ taking part in it.

“Alright!” Steven came out to help, “Nick, YunYun! How did the two of you like the north? How is the famous barbarian hospitality?”

He obviously teased, but Nick nonchalantly answered, “Not bad at all! Emperor Alpin even invited to stay at his castle for a couple of months and treated us like a family.”

YunYun did her best to hide her laughter, grabbed a large piece of pizza and stuffed it in her mouth.

“When the spring came, we spent most of the time training in the Northern mountain range and traversed it twice from east to west and back. If one doesn’t take the weather in to account, it is a great place to visit.” Nick said and pointed at Helio and Kate, “But don’t tell me ‘them’ is the biggest news you have. Wasn’t queen Hua expecting?”

“Oh, right! A boy!” Conny said, “We finally have another brother. But this one is cute and, more importantly, other people than Kate will get to play with him! Hahaha!”

She burst into loud laughter, but Kate blushed and kicked her below the table.

“How is the preparation for Olympic games going? When exactly is the event starting?” Nick changed the topic.

“In a week.” Mason said, “This idea of yours turned out to be incredible. Youths from all over the world are coming to participate. Representatives from Styx and Lethe kingdoms arrived a couple of weeks ago in fear that they could be late because of weather on the sea. Andrew with the youths from Nola kingdom came a week ago and then even few dozen barbarians came. How did you persuade those to participate?”

“I didn’t. We just told about this event and they decided on their own.” Nick shrugged, “How about the new arena? Is it ready?”

“Yup. And it’s all thanks to Zia. For the whole winter she almost made everyone crazy, but that allowed the construction works to finish on time. She didn’t care about any excuses or bothered about anybody’s feelings. When someone started to explain why they couldn’t deliver something on time, she pulled her huge thing out and with bloodshot eyes asked if they are trying to kill her ‘baby’. And, trust me, there is no one in their right mind who would answer affirmatively to something like that!” Mason told and the whole room laughed.

Everyone, except Nick and YunYun.

Already for some time Nick was getting this weird feeling, something like an unpleasant sensation in his Dantian region and when he asked, YunYun confirmed she felt the same. They couldn’t figure out the meaning so decided to let it be for now, but with the time this feeling became more distinct and intensified after arrival to Aurora. And now, while Mason spoke, it almost became unbearable. They both felt like that for the first time in their lives.

“By the way, where is she now?” Nick asked trying to keep himself calm.

“She always is either with her mother and the little brother or in the arena. Of course, since the last week she is spending long hours while practicing with Andrew. I bet today they ran off to somewhere.” Mason shrugged.

“No.” Nick abruptly got up, “I sent her message similar to the one I sent to all of you. She wouldn’t miss this meal, on contrary, both of them would’ve been here.”

“Jealous?” Mason grinned.

Nick looked around and bit his thumb trying to calm down. Then, after taking a deep breath he asked, “Where is the delegation from Nola kingdom staying?”

“Their usual place, I guess.” Mason shrugged.

“I’m sorry guys, but we’ll have to leave.” Nick sighed, “YunYun, let’s go!”

He stopped at the doorstep and said without turning back, “I really hope I’m wrong, but, Mason, if we don’t manage to return on time, make sure the event goes perfectly! Don’t kill her baby!”

While dashing through the busy streets of Aurora Nick was kicking himself. How egocentric he had become that he even didn’t notice Zia’s absence at first? She was his friend! If she could, she would’ve definitely come to the “Sunshine” and especially because Andrew was in the city – she would’ve pulled him over as well! There was something wrong! And that annoying feeling in his Dantian ...

When Nick and YunYun neared the residence of Nola kingdom’s delegation, already from afar they saw Andrew with disheveled hair standing at the gates and cursing at the couple of his men, “… what do you mean ‘you don’t know’? How hard can it be …”

“Andrew!” Nick shouted from the distance and a split second later already arrived, “When was the last time anyone saw her?”

Indeed, the person who was in love with Zia for so many years in the current situation was the best source of information.

“Yesterday evening when she went back to her quarters after visiting queen Hua.” Andrew said. Obviously he was in a lot of stress and, from the looks of it, was planning to meet his sweetheart already yesterday evening but she didn’t show up. That explained the disheveled hair and the red eyes. The poor guy also felt something bad had happened, but his hands were tied in the foreign country.

“Alright. I’ll take care of it. Have a rest and …” Nick tried to comfort him, but Andrew interrupted.

“I know something bad happened! And judging by your … you know where she is!”

“Andrew, I don’t know! I only have a guess … and there is no proof whatsoever.” Nick said.

“Doesn’t matter! I need to find her! Take me with you!” Prince kept on insisting.

“You … I know you want to help, but … you won’t be able to keep up.” Nick tried to find the correct words, but anything he could say sounded simply cruel.

“I don’t care! I’ll keep up even if I die! I’ll even eat the beast cores if I need to!“ Andrew almost shouted.

“Nick?” YunYun whispered.

Nick looked back at her feeling how she was pulling his sleeve, “Alright! Take this.”

He pulled out the last meteorite ring he had and passed it to Andrew, “I threw few sacks of the beast cores in – start using continuously those from now on non-stop. We have along road ahead of us. If you run out – let me know, I’ll give you some more.”

Andrew immediately put the ring on his finger and took out a couple of rank three beast cores in each hand.

“Can they deal with everything without you?” Nick asked and pointed at the residence.

Andrew instantly guessed his meaning. He turned to his men and said, “Make sure our youths perform well in the games. I might not come back in time, but that doesn’t mean they can show a weak performance!”

He barely finished his sentence when Nick already pulled him away.

The two men from Nola kingdom looked at each other in confusion. One moment the prince was scolding them, then let them be and run away and, more importantly, said he could be absent for a longer time? This was definitely not his normal behavior.

Andrew didn’t ask anything and Nick didn’t explain. The trio ran back to the Royal woods and when they arrived at the cottage, Nick loudly whistled towards the sky. Few seconds later a large meteorite plunged towards the earth and, before crashing, it suddenly stopped by spreading its wings.

“Change of plans! I think those bastards have my friend – let’s move out immediately!” Nick said and Angel immediately flew up. The three people also silently dashed south like lightning bolts.

After leaving the suburbs, Nick took YunYun’s hand and turned to Andrew while still running, “We will increase our pace. As I said earlier – use the beast cores as much as you need. Her life depends on it.”

Andrew was too stressed out to think about any of it, he just concentrated to absorb Qi from the cores in his hands and glued his eyes at the backs of the two as if afraid he could loose them.

But few kilometers further ahead they suddenly stopped when they saw Angel dropping down from the sky once again.

“What’s up?” Nick asked, but the eagle pointed his beak back to the north, towards Aurora.

After another minute two small clouds of dust were seen approaching from the distance.

“Sigh, I thought this might happen.” Nick shook his head and said.

“Who are they?” Andrew asked.

“What do you mean, ‘who’? Although we were not running at our fastest pace, how many people in the world do you think are capable of catching up to us?” Nick grinned back.