[Bila]
Bila had been watching Cades while he had fought against the lord of the skies and had now arrived, standing right next to the now almost naked body of the ehetrian.
He was almost naked because of the flames that had used his wings and clothes as fuel but Bila still covered him in a small blanket she had with her for when it gets cold, not that a lord level would really need to worry about freezing to death, at least not in this temperature, she didn't really care either, she didn't have the capability to really care.
After making sure that no one would come here she quenched the flames on the creature that had just been felled by Cades so that the materials wouldn't be ruined.
She lowered herself, that which seemed to be a knee bending inwards and looked at the face of the young ehetrian in front of her.
"Truly wonderous, to see you that young. I wonder if he knows what's going to happen. Probably not. But he's already inside you."
Bila stood up once more and started looking around, as if searching for something when her deformed eyes locked onto something and she began speaking with an absent mind.
"Great king, lend me your will."
As she spoke these simple words a multitude of inconceivably complex runic sequences began to light up, shining brightly, burning, in thin air and something came to her, neither power nor sound, what came was not something we would have a name for.
If one were to try and explain it one could say that she received what she had to know but already knew to know. A concept that could never be understood by us, except for very few, but this manifestation was exactly that.
And just like that, the runes vanished once more to thin air, just as they had suddenly appeared.
Bila knew what the next few steps would now be, but she could never tell Cades.
Not yet.
Speaking of Cades, he had been surprisingly powerful for a newly awakened apex.
She had been quite impressed by how he thought, the violet flames were normally the power of lord levels after all.
Not that it had truly impressed her, Bila knew what he would achieve, she could see it after all, she had lived it.
Bila instantly stood before the entrance to the cavern, space itself having bowed down or her, and entered it, knowing exactly what to look for, Mangels journal.
She knew that she had to make sure that he would go and meet "him", without "him" he would probably lose in the end, after all.
To her delight she recognized that Cades was going to meet "him" without her needing to do anything.
Bila would spend the next week watching over the unconscious body from far away, only going near if a courageous monster dared to descend the hole.
[Nelia]
She had finally arrived.
Nelia was in the city where Mangel was currently located, or at least the artifact of his that she had been able to track.
As Nelia entered the huge city she noticed one grave detail.
At the centre of the city there was a huge pile of broken, white wood with Mangel standing in front of it, next to some armored avians.
She quickly walked towards him and called out, hoping that he would hear her, which he did.
One could see the disbelief in Mangels face, two of his lost friends within weeks, what a miracle !
Hopefully, this one wouldn't try to kill him.
Mangel had bandages wrapped around his arms, legs and stomach, actually, basically everything was bandaged, still, Nelia tightly hugged him and proudly declared just how happy she was to see him alive.
After the surprise wore off Mangel asked Nelia how she had gotten here and she began telling her story.
Nelia had rushed home after finding out her father died, just to find out her friends might also have died, she was crushed, after calming down, however, she decided to use the funds of the new company she had inherited to find them while utilizing the artifact he had given her so that she wouldn't get lost on ehetria, and so that he could find her if she had been kidnapped.
The artifact looked like just a normal "bff" necklace, that one could find in most clothing shops, except for the two brightly glowing, yellow gems embedded in the opposite sides of the two half circles.
After she had finished talking, however, Mangel began telling his story once more, exuding what had happened in the last two weeks.
When he was finally done Nelia asked what was up with the huge pile of white wood, the size of a multi-story house, in the middle of the city.
Mangel hesitated for a bit but began talking once more.
"Cades happened. He destroyed the temple I worked at, killed six of the paladins and incapacitated the captain I work under."
Nelia was shocked, she barely understood what was happening.
Why would Cades do that ?
But then Mangel continued talking and said something that had been announced by captain Hilgo the previous day.
"Cades is now betitled as the Demon of the unknown."
[Hekima]
The demon of the sky has fallen.
That was what Hekima had now found out, and to think the bird was killed by the same being that had been studying in its own library for weeks now.
Hekima puffed his feather dress up and began preparing.
Hekima loved those that pursued wisdom and he really liked the young ehetrian that had been sitting and learning in his library, well, after ripping out some pages, but that young man looked completely fallen apart and besides himself, so he hadn't done anything.
After some time Hekima had even realized that the boy didn't know the language that the books were written in, he was just studying that which was illustrated and trying to understand by utilizing his own knowledge.
The young man was pursuing the purest kind of wisdom.
Hekima knew that the boy would soon try to fight him, but instead of getting ready to kill or die in a fight, ringing on the dirty ground, he had instead prepared a bet.
Finally, finishing the construction of the door frame where the boy would search him, Hekima sat down in the library, waiting to talk to the ehetrian for the first time.