PREDICAMENT

The sounds of the rattling carriages echoed through the forest as the convoy of Grand Duke of Leviathan carved a path in this vast creation of nature.

The forest the convoy was passing through is the outskirts of the capital of the Regulus Empire. The lush forest has thick towering trees that was twenty metres tall.

These enormous trees acted as a defense from attacks that came from either their neighboring countries from the west or star beasts coming from the south.

The inhabitants in this vast forest are star beasts that have low levels of danger. Their levels are classified from weakest to strongest as:

[Yellow Rank], [Green Rank], [Blue Rank], [Black Rank], and

[Red Rank]

Their rank increases as they accumulate gracia in their core and condense it. The star beasts in this forest have ranks of the first three, making the [Blue Rank] beasts the strongest here.

The tall trees serves as their source of gracia due to the trees absorbing the energy in the air.

"Grandpa, aren't there many monsters here in the outskirts? Why are we travelling here instead of the main road? Can the guards defeat the beasts that attacks? Can YOU beat them?", the cute girl with a red ribbon on her yellow hair bombarded the Grand Duke questions as she peeks through the windows of their carriage.

Levi was happy seeing her being energetic now as she heard the news of her father going to take her to the Desolate Zone.

"Your grandpa here can of course take care of them. Even your father can kill this monsters with a flick of his finger.", the old Duke flick his finger to her forehead as she giggled to his gesture.

"Umm, then, who is stronger? You or Daddy?", the girl said, eyes wide, as she stared the old Duke for an answer.

Levi put his right hand under his chin, trickling his short grey beard. "Hmm, I think your father will win if I fight him on land but, I can defeat him if we fight on the water."

"But who will win in the end? I think you won't beat him even if your on water. I believe in Daddy! Daddy will win!", the cute girl raised her right hand up in the ceiling while standing.

"Hoho, who knows? Maybe you will be stronger than us if you grow up faster. You and Feng will beat me and your daddy to the ground.", Levi rubbed her head as she giggled again.

He then looked through the window, the convoy was now out of the forest and making its way to the borders, heading south.

The view of barren desert filled their eyes.

Grand Duke left out a sigh as he thought of his own grandchildren, Feng and Mizu.

'I wonder how are they now? I'm sure can not wait to see them both.', he thought, as their carriage stop at the soft sand they can't travel in a carriage in this desert.

The star beasts here are commonly in [Green Rank], even in the outer ring. There's so much more powerful beasts farther in the Desolate Zone, some stronger beasts even made their own lairs and circulate their gracia there.

The adventurers and soldiers often go to the Outer Zone to gain battle experience or go hunt for cores, suitable for their star souls.

They got out of the carriage and was immediately met with searing heat of the sun.

"Hey old dragon, you should've brought an umbrella, you better not go drying on me now, haha!", they heard a gruff voice calling out to the Grand Duke between the commotion.

The other people in the carriages also got out, most of them are soldiers and adventurers, they are carrying everything that can be carried.

The convoy's purpose is to bring people that have a grudge on the Regulus imperial family.

Orders are being shouted at everywhere. They are all busy unpacking their belongings.

"It's nice to see you as well, my friend. How's the other job that I gave you? Are they all carried out?", the Grand Duke approached the masculine man a few feet away from them, holding the cute girl's left hand.

"Daddy!"

The girl ran towards the man who opened his arms to hug her. But, the girl didn't gestured a hug to greet her father.

Instead, she performed a flying kick to the face of her old man. "How many times did I tell you to write me a letter that makes sense and no hearts filling it?! I can't even see what you wrote because of the hearts!"

"I'm sorry, Mir. I just can't get rid of the thought of you writing me a letter. You were just so cute! So I just put few hearts in mine.", the masculine man said while blocking the barrage of punches that his cute 7 year-old daughter was throwing at him.

That made the Grand Duke let out a chuckle. He then cleared his throat, making a coughing sound to get the attention of the loving father who is now trying to kiss his cute daughter but, was being blocked by a fist.

"Oh, I'm sorry Duke Levi. Ahem! What I am trying to say is, the job is done. The children are in my tent and being taken care of by my soldiers.", he said, with straight face.

The Grand Duke pondered for a moment and thought about what his friend said. It gave him shivers thinking about masculine soldiers, wearing an apron and tending to the kids of the heroes.

"Well, as long as they are safe, I will be rest assured.", Duke Levi said, confirming the information.

"We will wait here for that man. I heard he woke up this morning and now exiting the capital. He should be here after an hour or less.", the old Duke said to the masculine man.

"Hector, let your men rest for now. Arrange all the things we will bring with us.", Levi let out a long sigh after ordering the masculine man.

Hector bowed and left the Grand Duke that was now staring at the forest, hoping that man will come quickly.

"Let's go, Mir. I will take you to my tent. There are kids there that you can play with.", Hector said to his daughter away with him.

"Yey! Is Feng and Luke in there, too?", Mir asked happily.

"No, they're not in my tent. But, soon you will see them and Mizu and the others too.", Hector reassured Mir to not make her sad.

"Okay! I will just play with them, Daddy!", Mir happily said while skipping and holding her father's hands.

As the pair of father and daughter make their way to the camp, the Grand Duke can be seen still staring at the forest behind them.

'The Desolate Zone's outer and middle ring is not difficult for me, Hector and his soldiers to pass through. But, the inner ring is filled with [Black Rank] beasts and having a large number of people behind our backs while we fight them is not a smart thing to do. Luce must come with us to push our way in. He said he knows where to get in.', Levi thought.

After an hour of waiting, the Luce is still not on sight. The desert is becoming more hotter by the time. They have to move or else the environment of the outer ring will punish them and worse as they have kids along the camp.

The Grand Duke is getting impatient. If they don't move now, the children will suffer. He started to walk back to the camp as they need to move and not wait for Luce. Then suddenly, he felt an enormous presence behind his back, it was suffocating.

He turned back to the forest and released all his cores. There were seven cores, the size of a fist floating beside him, all glowing brightly with a carving in their surfaces.

One of them has a green glow, the other four is blue, and the last two near Duke Levi's head is glowing black.

[6TH STAR CORE - DRAGON'S CLAIRVOYANCE]

One of the two black cores glowed brightly as he activated his core, Duke Levi's eyes turned into that of a dragon and shone a white light.

All the things that caught those eyes can be seen through, their veins, their bones, their blood flow, even the gracia in the air. Duke Levi's eyes can see them all now. He focused his eyes where the immense pressure came from.

What he saw shocked him. He saw the man they were waiting for, Luce, is now stronger than ever. His aura has become condensed, even the gracia in the air can't compare to it's hue. But, seeing Luce is not the thing that shocked him, it's the presence behind Luce!.

'This.. This is not possible, how can a human have this kind of aura. I must be getting old.', sweat trickled down the grand duke's face.

The aura is produced by accumulating gracia in the air and condensing it to your core. Your aura is gracia oozing out of your body.

The auras' color is determined by how high your level are and what rank of cores you have. The Duke has indigo aura, Luce has scarlet, but the man that Duke Levi saw has a blood red aura. It was possible if your level is at the peak of Demi-god Rank, [Level 99].

There's almost a little divinity mixed in the man's aura. The Grand Duke perceived it through his eyes.

'That guy is dangerous. I must help Luce.'

Levi hastily got back to the camp to find Hector. They must help Luce to escape this predicament. And Hector has the one thing that can help Luce.

"Hector! Enemies at range! Luce is being tailed! Help me!"

Levi opened Hector's tent abruptly and saw Hector already putting on his battle armor.

"I know, I sensed Luce got strong too. I also sensed 11 other pursuers. They are hiding their auras well."

Hector's tone changed into sarcastic in his last sentence.

They both immediately ran back into the forest to help Luce. Maybe their level were not as high as Luce, but their abilities can help him get a little boost on strength.

The predicament they will facing will be a huge one.