**At Cylon's capital** 

Emily sat in her bed, cultivating carefree. While in reality she was supposed to be under imprisonment by the orders of the Royal Court, it was more of a house arrest for her thanks to her trusted junior who swayed the opinion of the court in her favor at the last minute. 

A few months were only a blink for a strong Grand Mage like her. Though she would have loved to be there for her grandchildren when they were taking nascent steps in their cultivation journey, the truth was even someone as strong as she can't go against the Royal Court decree. 

The hint of a smile on Emily's face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a set of furrowed brows. "So it came to this.." She muttered to herself then opened her eyes unhurriedly. With as much as a thought of hers, a magic circle spanned across her. 

The rotating magic circle was crossed over by her prettily dressed spirit, Nerissa. "You think I have nothing else to do, Emily? What happened.. do you need me for a close heart-to-heart talk? I bet you got bored with the same old walls haha.." 

Her water spirit fell into the cozy bed, rolling into the soft sheets like a kid. "I need you to head over to Ryu's location, Nerissa. Sending you there.." "What the heck.. hey.. hey.. give me a background first...??" 

The water spirit had an expression of betrayal on her face when her body was once again dragged through a magic circle placed on her by an impassive Emily. "Curse you, Emily...!!" 

"Please.. you can't delay it. Look after the boy, but help him only if she really needs it. Thank you, for your service." Emily's words had only infuriated the water spirit, too bad her curses were completely drowned in the magic circle. 

Emily was at ease once Nerissa had been transported to Ryu's location. The bracelet she had offered the boy was used by her to mark the position where she can remotely summon her water spirit. As long as the opposition was not at the level of a Grand Mage, Nerissa could handle things on her own. 

Confident in her capabilities and having done what she could have, Emily returned to her cultivation. "Don't rely on it, boy. Grandma has sent an aide." Those were her last words before she shut her eyes off, completely cutting her off from the environment. 

***

Yalda and Ryu both could only stare in awe at the beautiful water spirit who seemed so harmless, yet was dealing an ungodly amount of damage with a burst of chortling laughter. "Madam Emily's water spirit." 

If Yalda was ever in doubt about the identity of the kid in her arms, then it was all resolved now. The young fairy who was now bigger than a newborn baby was actually grand mage Emily's contracted water spirit, beyond any doubt. 

"Hohoho.. prepare for my grand entrance, ants..!!" Though he had never come across this young water spirit with an attitude, Ryu was certain he had her image buried somewhere deep in his mind. 

"Miss Nerissa?" Linda was shocked as well. Everyone who had ever shared even the remotest of relationship with Mrs. Emily could never miss this mischievous water spirit of hers. The Wilder lady took a deep sigh of relief. 

"Is Mrs. Emily here as well?" By all consideration, the grand mage might be in proximity as well. And even by a bleak of chance if she wasn't here, Linda was certain even Miss Nerissa was more than capable of salvaging the situation single-handedly, such was the tyranny of a grand mage. 

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish* Linda heard sharp sounds of Nerissa's attacks slicing through the rapidly regenerating Krypto vines like butter. While the proud water spirit didn't even bother to react to her, Linda was not at all discontent. Right now she had other pressing matters to attend to. 

Paula's mad release of the evil vines had caught her contracted beast Pebble off guard. Pebble's iron defense was rendered useless by the assault of the vines since their ethereal nature meant they could simply be devouring the mana running through the channels of its unfortunate victim. 

While Nerissa was keeping the emergence of vines in check, Linda nursed her beast and sheltered it back in her special space stone. "You are one pesky individual, aren't you?" She heard Nerissa reprimand. At first, Linda assumed the little water spirit was cursing the vines, but on a closer look, her ire seems to be directed at the unlikely individual. 

"How do you end up in the center of every mess, brat? You think this mother has time to babysit newborns like yourself?" With hands around her petite waist, Nerissa had a finger pointing down at Ryu, continuously barraging the boy with rebukes. 

When a person you have never even met starts carpet bombing you with lectures, one can hardly figure out the accurate reaction. That was Ryu precisely right now. Despite being the first time he had met this spirited girl, she was going all bazooka on him. 

He wanted to ask for her identity, but owning to her hot head, he decided against it. Anyhow, from the mumblings of the two benevolent ladies who had earlier come to his rescue, he knew this spirit was related to Emily. 

"Hmph.. cat got your tongue boy? The least you can do is to say sorry." It was like the threat of the Krypto vines had been pushed to the background. Every time the vines recuperated and launched an assault, they will be cut down with a single glance of Nerissa. 

From Nerissa's perspective, she was still mad at the fact that this boy had sexually assaulted her. While it might have been the Demonic entity residing in his body who did the deed, as far as the haughty spirit was concerned, Ryu can't escape the blame either. 

"I am sorry.." Faced with the unforeseen barrage of condemnations, Ryu can only ask for forgiveness without even knowing what exactly his fault was in all this. Thankfully, his apology calmed down the triggered Nerissa, who wrapped her arms around her nonexistent breasts before scoffing it off. "Huh... I will deal with you later.. boy." 

At this point, Linda and Yalda stood together to one side with an expression that was in between crying and laughing. This world was really unfair. Someone they had given their all to fight up against, has been turned into a tantrum-throwing child after the arrival of Nerissa. 

"Then.. what do we have here?" Finally, Nerissa seems to have been satisfied with denouncing the boy and shifted her attention to the mess being created by an unconscious Paula summoning hordes of cursed vines. With each passing minute, the strength of her summoning had only grown stronger with thousands of vines crossing into this world every tenth of a second now. 

At this point, she was going to destroy a large part of the northwestern forests. "Just go and die already." Nerissa's brows bunched up as she prepared to bury the Krypto menace once and for all. Yet, before she could take action... her expression fell.

"Aaaahhhhhh...!!" A gut-wrenching scream of Paula was followed by a gigantic cluster of black vines emerging, each one three times bulkier than the last ones. Even with the increased threat perception in the front, Nerissa actually turned her head to stare back. "Emily you idiot...!" 

Just as Linda was confused by the sudden reaction from Nerissa, she quickly realized the reason. Another person is here. Stronger than her. Stronger than Paula. Possibly even stronger than Nerissa, however much absurd it might sound. 

Such was the vastness of this person's presence, that if Linda had to take a guess, this new person was probably stronger than everyone else combined here. "Beastmen." Linda's face lost color. Being the human kingdom on the cusp of beastmen territory, who other than them will be able to better identify this presence that was devoid of mana, yet so overwhelming? 

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* A set of footsteps trampled the barren lands under the combined bated breaths of Linda, Nerissa, Yalda, and Ryu. However, as opposed to others, Ryu's expressions were immediately uplifted. "Darla!?" 

"Hn..?" Much like the boy, the female centaur's face morphed into ecstasy as soon as she discovered the boy. Ryu watched Darla leave her companion and lunge in his direction. 

In contrast to Ryu, everyone else has their attention fixated on the centaur with was accompanying 'Darla'. Nerissa was taken aback when one of the centaurs rushed towards Emily's grandson. But this one was not the real threat in her eyes, the other centaur who was yet to make any move was the one she was most concerned about. 

"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!" But if there was one person who was unable to judge the gravity of this stand-off, that was certainly a comatose Paula. Taking the time when Nerissa was distracted, all the Krypto vines had regenerated and were ready to make a final stand. 

Over on the other side, Naila watched her niece runoff. It didn't take her long to match the human boy with the stories Darla used to tell him. Needless to say, this was the same boy she had fallen head over heels for. 

Though a little surprised by the water spirit, Naila was at a level where very few things in this world could threaten her. Nonetheless, the staring contest between Nerissa and herself was broken by Paula's abrupt shout. 

Naila raised her brows, veritable identifying the Krypto Vines that had become a recent phenomenon plaguing their plantations. Making sure that the water spirit had nothing to do with the black abomination, she made her move. 

The centaur's sudden movement laid credibility to Linda's assumptions. The person of beastkin origins had moved so fast that after a few seconds, Linda realized she had stupidly been staring at the reflection left behind while the centaur had already closed in the hundreds of meter distance between them. 

Naila manifested and threw a fist. It wasn't anything fancy, just a simple punch. Nevertheless, a punch that shattered that earth, shattered the shy, and shattered the firmament itself. Heavens rumbled as if responding to the seemingly infinite might of the centaur woman. 

Cultivators like Linda felt their knees go weak under the crushing pressure while lines of worry developed on Nerissa's forehead. While it was hard to compare an individual from beastmen tribe metric to metric with their human counterparts, because of their radically different cultivation techniques.. the might on display is no way weaker than Emily herself. 

Naila's blow was strong to the point of disbelief and yet it didn't even generate as much as a wind blast. It's like all her energies were concentrated at a single point, completely destroying the target from the inside out. *BOOOOOMM* A single punch had transformed the weather, leading to echoing thunderclaps in the skies. This centaur.. had broken reality itself both physically and figuratively.

***

Darla meanwhile had totally disregarded her aunt, breaking into a sprint as soon as her gaze landed on Ryu. When she accompanied Naila on this training trip, the young centaur had never in her dreams imagined she would come across Ryu once again.. that too so soon. 

Though her expression significantly turned downcast when she noticed Ryu was unable to stand up and was limping to one side. Immediately Darla rushed to him and held the boy in her arms. "What's wrong with you?" 

Ryu's image in Darla's mind had been that of a hero. A hero who despite lacking the naturally gifted physique like her, was able to beat her as well as any other obstacles with his wits and mana proficiency. She respected and eventually loved the human boy for this quality. 

Yet when she saw him in this disheveled state, Darla was infuriated. There was no way Ryu would ever lose to a peer, did that mean one of these senior humans tried to harm him? Thankfully, she can't see any physical injuries on him, but she can tell just by looking at his pale face that the boy had suffered. 

"Haha... it's only a headache.. nothing more.." Just as she imagined, Ryu simply brushed it off. Even though, his smile was genuine as he embraced the tall centaur with all the affection. "Good to see you back.." 

The two lovers could only embrace for so long when Naila's move forced them apart simply because the earth under their feet had lost its sturdiness. Ryu can only stare in horror, watching massive cracks develop all across. "Don't worry. That's my aunt."