The Third Party - Chapter 50

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

Raze sent out scouts to monitor the actions of the demon army as they would rendezvous at the Northern Forest, with the intention of keeping them updated of the whereabouts of their enemy while they swiftly travel.

The plan was simple, their main objective would be to arrive at the Northern Forest without getting noticed by the demon army while they send out individuals to scout out the area and warn one another if they had spotted monsters along their way.

Engaging is out of the question since killing one monster might alert the others of their presence, hence even though they were marching to the Northern Forest, west of the valley, they were careful not to create too much disturbance to the wilds as much as possible.

Their scouts would dart in and out of formation as what they were told to maximize the area they would cover, thankfully both lions and wolves were efficient in the task. The esper wolves were in charge of relaying the information within one another through the help of Alfred and Lyn’s spell -which had not deactivated by the way-.

They were weirded out of the sudden voice in their head, but soon they adjusted to the spell and were able to use it effectively.

While the mountain lions and lava wolves were in charge of the scouting, some of the esper wolves also joined too leaving the others walking forward, lucky now, are they? But no, Alfred, Lyn, Erick, and Lorna, were in charge of keeping up the spell while they help sort out vital information for the group.

Vin, Kel, Coralia, Trunk, Raze, Cloud, and Rain were in charge of the path towards the Northern Forest. The kids were left almost no task, for the adults deemed them to stay put and do nothing but follow what they have to say.

But Ken interjected saying that they can still help, but he did so in a respectful way, free of discouragement, or pride in his intent, he reasoned out that he wants to maximize their safety of travel, and he gave one way.

That is to have someone cloaked with invisibility by magic and fly in the air to scour and monitor the skies. At first the adults were reluctant but gave in when all the kids had ganged up on them, they could not refuse such blatant insistence.

Allen, Princess Lang and Celine had volunteered to take to the skies and scout, the group nodded for they believe that they would be enough and swift in this objective, Ken had also added another feature again to the spell his father and mother casted.

That is to connect Allen to Saber, Celine to Lila, and Princess Lang with him, as some type of private connection, he said that this would be a way for them to directly come to the three’s aid if ever they are caught in trouble.

And so their plan commenced, the three flew up into the sky, turning invisible mid-air, they checked if the connection between their pair was online and confirmed with their pair transmitting yes to their mind.

By now they had passed the river Ken and his group had loved to bathe in, but since this was a relatively far distance from their old training ground -which was covered in small patches of grass since it was still used by their parents to either hang out or practice- they didn’t encounter any demons.

Several reports from those who scouted from the ground and from the air were transmitted all throughout the spell Alfred and Lyn made, with the occasional sightings of monsters here and there and then avoiding them entirely.

The whole group used the information effectively as they would adjust their formation to the actions of the demon army. One such desperate werewolf had stumbled upon the center of the formation of the main group due to it feeling hungry and smelling something in the air.

The creature had gone unnoticed because by coincidence or pure luck, it had slipped through the routes the scouts took, coupled with the fact that it was walking in four legs making it difficult to discern them from a dire wolf or an esper wolf since they have similar looking coats.

It was not only at the last second that they discovered that a monster slipped by when the dire wolf stood in its two hind legs behind the formation where other scouts where resting. The leaders were alarmed when their men had started shouting -or roaring/ barking in their case- on the backline.

The four human adults were not even spared of the mental strain of the shout in both the connection and in actuality, they felt like their heads would suddenly give out from the ringing.

There they saw a werewolf lunging towards one of the defenseless scouts who despite being tired from scouting the area still pressed on to walk beside the formation so as not to be left behind.

Suddenly an ice spike formed beside its head and in the blink of an eye, the ice spike pierced the head in one swift movement, before dislodging itself and impaled the body of the werewolf for eight times and imbedding itself on the last strike.

The group looked around and found that it was Ken who initiated the spell with the magic circle fading out in front of him, Ken didn’t mind the attention and pressed forward, waking everyone from their shocked state and continued walking.

Although the spell took a toll on the adults body and mind, since they had to manage dozens of individual thoughts, they were still able to withhold with the assistance of Wilbert, Flin Riyah and Icarus.

The four had taken upon themselves to share the burden the four adult humans were under, with the psychological training Ken had given and is still giving them, along with their experience from earlier, made them handle the pressure with a little bit of ease.

But the task was still an arduous one, for some of the information being passed was accompanied with the intense emotion the sender had, making it all the more taxing for them to help in filtering out vital information.

And the commotion from earlier still left a bit of a painful ring on the system the spell created.

Thankfully every single one of the lions, wolves and their three companions didn’t burden them much with their emotion and deliberately sent out information that they deemed vital, this time everyone was even more precise and meticulous of the information they would send.

As they had learned from their previous mistake of slightly messing around with the spell that they weren’t able to notice right away that werewolf that passed their formation, added with the fact that they felt guilty for the outcome of their actions on the humans.

Through the efforts of everyone, they finally arrived at the entrance of the Northern Forest without anymore mishaps as they had followed the plan of action their leaders and the humans had created for them.

Alfred, Lyn, Erick, and Lorna, had finally deactivated the spell freeing them from the pressure along with the other four, they were thankful that they finally arrived at the Northern Forest, and at the village where the magical beasts resided.

Upon their arrival, the magical beasts in both their animal and human form flocked at the entrance to receive them and more importantly help the group settle into the village as per orders by Klein.

Klein, Lana, and Ulysses arrived shortly after while the residents where ongoing with the assistance of the lion and wolves to give them a place to rest, everyone in the village where quick to act for Allen had the bright idea of informing them beforehand of their action by flying here to inform his father through Ken’s spell and then flying back to assist the group.

It could be considered an animal beast army now because of their large numbers.

‘It’s official, I’ll have to call this village a town now.’ thought Ken as he watched as dozen cave holes opened up from the ground to let the exhausted mountain lions, esper and lava wolves to rest within the caves of the Northern Forest’s 34 houses.

Ken was sprawled out on the ground with his hands behind his back as support near the entrance of the village, town of the Northern Forest by the wooden spikes wall, along with his group who lined themselves to his left, as they were exhausted too.

They watched as the formation they were in had thinned out and lastly leaving no lion or wolf behind. The scenario never fails to baffle Ken as he witnessed the kindness the magical beasts ruled out by nothing but their humility and rational thinking.

Never that jealous, but more content, and always helpful, like how they were willing to help Ken prepare food for his companions, or providing them shelter when they were busy that one time. The thought brought peace of mind to him.

“Good work to all of you.” said Klein approaching the group along with the two masters, guardians, and parents. The group stood up in attention.

“Thank you master.” The eleven replied and bowed.

“The eleven of you can go and take a rest at my house, Allen, please lead them there.” said Klein, but the lot looked unwilling, they had similar thoughts of the matter, and that they want to be in on the battle too.

Klein upon noticing their defiance raised an eyebrow, confused as to why that is.

“Forgive me if this may be disrespectful master but, I do not wish to take a leisure.” said Ken, immediately his group nodded too.

“Why?” asked Klein seriously. Ken thought hard for a moment, he knows to himself that the adults are trying to make them not participate in the battle to come, but the animal beast leaders thinks otherwise.

“Please let me join in the battle.” said Ken his companions who thought that they would be included looked at him in shock and quite probably outrage for not including them, unknown to them, Ken didn’t take a glance at them when they nodded and had just stared stare at his master.

“Let me join too!” -Allen-

“Me too!” -Celine and Princess Lang-

“Us too!” -The rest of the group-

Ken stared at his companions wide-eyed at their sudden eagerness to join one after another. He tilted his head to the side for a moment, thinking as to why they would expose them to danger, forgetting that he’s also someone who should not be exposed to danger.

His companions had similar thoughts along the line of, they cannot let Ken into battle without them, or they’ll worry, but most of all, he hasn’t recovered yet.

Klein and the rest fared no better, they were also shocked of their children/students/nephews to declare such thoughts. Klein shook himself out of the trance and asked…

“Why?” He looked into the eyes of his students as they too looked into him as he spoke. They all entered into deep thought, wondering their eyes, biting their lips or frowning hard, except for those that know how to control their facial expressions and just omitted a certain chill to the bone.

Ken sighed and said…

“I do not wish to stand idle by and wait for the battle to end when I know I can help, that we can help.” He gestured to his friends.

“How?” asked Ulysses stepping forward, his face riddled with unbridled anger, he does not wish for his students to be exposed to so much danger.

“We have encountered certain monsters that are invincible to our elemental powers, but we’ve found a way to defeat them.” Ulysses was about to interject but Ken beat him to it. “Plus, our teamwork worked out great on our last battle, Wilbert was essential in defeating those demons.”

At this the three were alarmed and looked at Ken differently, Ken noticed this and said…

“Please don’t worry masters if I know of this information, it’s just that I tend to peek onto my parent’s private conversations.” He smiled cheekily at his parents who were flustered of the revelation. “But none of their private conversations intrigued me more than this.”

“And I overheard you three talking about this topic on one of mama and papa’s visits here.” this made them all the more flustered as they had not noticed being caught at all, more than that they were confused as most of their conversations were either late into the night -Ken’s parents-, and when they know they’re children are busy -with other adults-.

“I know that all of you had hopes in Master Lana’s Light magic, but we’ve also got someone who can also efficiently use it.” added Ken. Ulysses gazed for a second at the person Ken meant, Wilbert. He sighed.

“We’re reluctant to let any of you participate in this war and if you had listened to all of our conversations, you’d know of the worries we have for this time of demon gates appearing.” Ken looked down for a moment, remembering how their conversations laid out in frantic and worried tones.

He took a deep breath, exhaled and looked into Ulysses’ eyes.

“I know that this time it will be dangerous, more so if the eleven of us joined in on the fight, but I’m confident that I can stand on my own along with my friends, so I’m not going to let you try and waste your life just to save ours.” said Ken, effectively widening the eyes of his companions, more.

Ulysses sighed.

“But Ken, we’re all doing this for you, you’re the only hope we’ve got for your future and the future of this valley.” said Lana, she couldn’t stand idly anymore while they bicker. “Can you please step out of this for us, for me?”

Ken felt his resolve falter, but he caught himself to the last second, blinked once and said…

“I’m sorry Master Lana, I will stand by my word, I will not want you guys to throw away your lives for ours.” The talk about throwing away their life, really confused the group, and were curious to know what Ken knew about it.

The topic was even more impacting on Allen, Saber, Lila, and Glen, as this were their parental figures that were going to… die for their sake, anxiety slowly crept into their minds, assaulting their thoughts, but they didn’t let it show as they anticipated for what their masters would say.

“And, if you’re going to try and make us sleep with a spell, you’re going to have to do better than that.” said suddenly, sounds of breaking glass rang all over the group as magic circles after magic circles were broken in an instant, a total of 20.

Alfred who casted the spell was dumbfounded along with the adults and Ken’s friends, for Alfred he didn’t know what to think as his mind was assaulted by different thoughts for breaking a magic circle was impossible and to see his son do it in front of his eyes made him go blank for a moment.

Pretty much all of them were dumbfounded of what happened and had similar thought process, their brains fried themselves thinking how it was possible to break a magic circle, and a total of twenty on top of that, should they feel alarmed? They thought.

Ken just chuckled at their expressions.

“Thanks to our last battle, I’ve finally understood how to cancel out magic.” he said.

“What?!” they simultaneously said breaking out from their trance at his sentence, making Ken cover his ears.

“Geez, you guys didn’t have to shout so loud.” he said while pouting. It’s hard to imagine how such a kid can go about and be nonchalant and pouty while also achieving such a feet.

“That is not the only thing you’ll be taking from us young man, come here and receive your punishment!” said suddenly by Ken’s mother, she blinked to his side in a second, and held his shoulders, terribly, her aura emitted anger to the highest level she could muster while smiling.

Ken gulped, in fright of what his mother would do. The pair looked angelic if not stunning to anyone who would gaze at them, similar feminine, and beautiful features, with black long hair shined under the setting sunlight made the scene look even more ethereal.

But they’ll wonder why the scenery had such a heavy atmosphere.

“No!” exclaimed Ken and blinked away from his mother, and quickly tied his hair into a messy bun, he knows that his mother will not hesitate to grab into anything including his hair to get to him, his mother was a rowdy fighter in the past, up till now.

“I will not receive your punishment!” he said childishly and stuck out his tongue in a childish manner with both hands clutched to the side of his hips and leaning forward.

“Yes you will!” exclaimed his mother blinking beside him again.

“KYA!” Ken blinked out and the two started a blinking match between mother and son, and they appeared almost everywhere, in the air, on the trees, or on the ground. The group stared at the mother and son duo amused and at the same time awkward that the serious conversation turned childish in just minutes.

On a last dish effort, Ken appeared in front of his father followed by his mother, in a split second he blinked behind his mother, and pushed her into his father’s arms, making both his parents topple over.

Before the two would fall to the ground Ken casted his dark bindings using his dark moon magic.

“What is this?! *Grunt*” Lyn struggled to use her magic to blink out but the bindings would not let her, she resorted to freeing from the bindings but it only turned into a failure, and a mess of tangled limbs and something poking at her down there.

She stared wide-eyed at her husband and before she could scream or shout due to the embarrassment of her husband sprouting something down there, Ken casted his sound alteration spell and lowered the volume of her mother’s voice.

Ken upon seeing her mother go scolding mode, walked towards his parents, and held his mother’s shoulder making her look up at him.

“Ma, please don’t scold papa for what’s down there, isn’t that only natural?” He said, her mother laid her head on his father’s chest in defeat, cheeks flushed, Ken chuckled, removed the sound alteration spell, and released them from the bindings.

Alfred immediately covered the thing that needed attention down there nonchalantly while Lyn stood up, and dusted herself and made an action that indicated that she wanted to do something, but nothing happened, she just stood awkwardly doing a pose or something.

She realized that she can’t use blink anymore.

“Ma, if you’re still adamant on punishing me then I will not lift the spell hindering you from using blink.” Ken said.

“No fair, HMPH!” Lyn crossed her arms in front of her, while the rest of the group laughed off the antics of the mother and son duo, even the four newcomers had gotten used to this kind of interaction between the two since they had plenty of times witnessed similar situations beforehand.

“Now will you let me, us (gesture to his companions) participate in the war?” asked Ken. Lyn sighed at the stubbornness his son possessed and gave in.

“Fine, I’ll let you participate, that is if Klein let’s you participate.” she said looking at her gleeful son that sprouted a beaming smile, Ken stared earnestly at his master.

“Okay, I will let you participate as well.” said Klein.

“What the?! I thought you would not allow him.” said Lyn in outrage, but not really that angry.

“You didn’t say anything, and for the record, you gave permission first, I just went along with it.” replied Klein nonchalantly, after witnessing two stupidly seemingly impossible feats to accomplish done by his student, how can he not let him participate.

Lyn proceeded to rant and turned her husband into her own punching bag, leaving him with bruises in so many places, except that part, this was one of their iconic symbols as partners, Alfred was more of the researcher, while Lyn was the fighter, despite Alfred being stronger than Lyn.

Alfred sighed in defeat at the antics of his wife.

“Does this mean that you’ll allow the others to participate as well master?” asked Ken.

“I will let them, but remember to keep yourselves safe at all times, understood?” said Klein, looking into each eyes of his students.

“Yes Master!” the group simultaneously replied while bowing.

“One more thing, Ken you will not be participating in the first day of battle, along with Wilbert.” said Klein.

“Eh?” immediately the smile on his face fell down to a frown, he wanted to reason out again but Klein gave him that warning look.

“This is an order.” added Klein, making Ken’s face fall down even more into a sad puppy. Bloody hell, why does this student of mine had to have such a stupendous way of thinking! Didn’t think that I’d catch on now did you, well you’re wrong, thought Klein.

He knows how much of a disaster it would be if Ken would be given the chance at battle in the first day, especially with that look, that look of overdosed battle sensation, a look that he was familiar with all too well.

But more importantly, they’ll need to keep their aces hidden until needed, and that would be them.

“Alright, everyone take a rest while dinner is being prepared, and you all can spend the night today, our recent information tells us that the demon army will likely arrive tomorrow morning, so we’ll all need the rest we can get.” said Klein, together with the other two masters they walked inside the village.

Just as the masters entered, Raze, Cloud, and Rain walked out of the village.

“Everyone’s here, come, dinner’s ready, the villagers have all prepared different food for everyone.” this time it was Rain who said it, the group nodded grateful for the news and entered together with the three.

“Your highness!” everyone turned around to look at the person who shouted and found the general and judiciary warrior lions of King Raze, running towards them along with a few reinforcements.

“Riven, Trun, great, you’ve both arrived, I hope that you didn’t encounter problems along the way.” said Raze, he commanded for all of the newly arrived reinforcement of about five battalions with forty lions each to proceed right inside, there will be personnel that will lead them to where the pride is situated at a house of the caves.

Combined with the three battalion that they traveled with to get here, it would be a total of eight battalions, the lava wolves pack have about half of the lion’s numbers while the esper wolves pack are of similar numbers to its cousins.

‘Guess we’ll have to make due with this, then, I’ll need to create a battle plan, first things first in the morning, to scout and assume the numbers of our enemies.’ thought Ken to himself.

Riven and Trun reported that they didn’t really have that much of a problem in their journey here, and so they had relatively arrived safe.

The group finally went inside of the village and took the rest for the night, had dinner and all went to sleep, but with defensive spells and guards scouting the perimeter of the village.

‘I wonder why this is happening though, yeah I get that the demon gate opens every six years, but what did my parents and the adults do to summon even stronger monsters, or better yet, demons into this world.’ thought Ken.

Him along with his parents were situated at the cave of Klein, they didn’t have to worry over a cover above their head and just slept in what looks to be a sleeping bag, except it’s more of a mat with a makeshift pillow and a thin blanket.

Lucky for them, his parents knows how to make themselves comfortable and unbothered with an arcane spell that negates the cold, keeps them warm inside, and slightly deters the wind to not bother them much while they sleep, it also comes with a regular barrier and a sound barrier, the caster is also able to adjust the spell’s area of effect.

A spell his parents like to call ‘Adaptation Curtain’. A spell similar to his, but his was a little bit on the lower quality side, still, it’s quite good for a spell. Ken gazed at the fire situated at the center of their perimeter.

The spell covered about a ten meter radius, situated at the center is the burning fire giving light to the surroundings, other than that the mountain lions also settled on this cave with their large number, some were sleeping on the flower field, while some at the center circle, together with them.

Celine’s family and tribe was accommodated by Master Lana along with Wilbert’s Family, the rest are at their homes here in the Village.

‘Thanks to father and mother’s spell I’m sure all the sound around us will keep us up all night.’ Ken looked up above and wondered at how this cave flows with the same time frame as the outside, even the hole on the ceiling showed the stars of the night.

‘Sleeping in my battle clothes had always been uncomfortable, but this will make do, good thing I have a cleansing spell.’ He stared some more of at the stars above, his eyes droopy.

Ken fell asleep with a thought in his mind, to find out the answer to his looming question of the arrival of demons to this world, right before he explains why he can cancel out spells and restrict other people’s abilities to cast them.

‘*chuckle* I bet my friends are shocked how I was able to do that.’ He thought. Indeed they are, thought White.

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