"So we're just letting it go?" One of the Blood Wizards following Helena sputtered, a middle-aged vampire with greying brown hair and a stern appearance. Dolovin Peytrach, a powerful Grandmaster Class vampire, one of the stronger ones she'd brought with her.

"Yes." Helena's voice was cold as she looked out at the lonely figure of Dorian, walking away from the city walls.

"Do not question my will." Her voice was filled with steel as she turned and looked at her subordinate, or, rather, General Carus' subordinate that she had borrowed.

The middle-aged vampire backed down, waving his hands in the air in surrender.

Helena's thoughts flashed back to the conversation she had had with Dorian, just an hour or so prior.

The early light of dawn had just been creeping over the horizon when he appeared, once more on the roof.

Helena had a habit of standing off on her own, meditating or lost in her own thoughts. She enjoyed being in places with few people, and in a busy city like this, a secluded roof was the best she could manage.

The scene opened up in her mind, Dorian's lithe, black body landing on the roof in front of her.

"I'm planning on leaving." The Anomal-, no, she corrected herself, Dorian, said, giving her a friendly smile.

Helena stared back, unsure on how to respond.

"Where to?" She eventually returned.

Dorian sighed, sitting down on the edge of the roof. The normally bustling city was just starting to wake up, still quiet in the early light.

"I have a friend I need to save, and a journey I need to go on in order to save him." His reply had been simple.

When he spoke, however, his back had bowed, as if he was carrying a heavy weight upon his shoulders. He took another deep breath, shrugging and shaking his head.

Helena shivered when she saw this, her heart beating fast. She reached out a hand, wanting to lay it on his shoulder and comfort him.

She froze halfway, looking down at her arm. What was she doing?

She had only just met him a few days ago, when he rescued her. She blushed furiously. What was she thinking? She took her hand back, slowly.

He wasn't even a vampire.

As she was struggling with her thoughts, Dorian continued,

"It won't be easy, but it's a journey I must take." He continued,

"Nothing in life is ever easy, though, eh? If things were, everyone would be successful, and everything would be perfect."

He turned to look at her.

Helena's face was a picture of calm, not a hint of blush on it as she responded,

"No. Things in life are never easy." Her mind went to her own goals and aspirations. To her constant training, and the solitude she enforced on herself in order to grow stronger.

Silence reigned for a moment, an unspoken agreement forming between them.

"Will I ever see you again?" Helena asked, her voice a whisper. She mentally cursed at herself again. She felt like a small child again, not a powerful warrior.

Over the past few days, she had talked to this strange man for hours. Sometimes they talked about the future, but other times they talked about the past. He was funny and smart, silly but also fierce.

What she admired most about him was his unwavering confidence and his refusal to do wrong, no matter what. She had never met someone quite like him.

Sometimes it seemed like a bit much, in her opinion. His goals and aspirations seemed impossible. Life was very grey, how could anyone stick to a truly clean path? He was so stubborn.

For some reason, though, she felt as if she had faith in him.

If anyone could do it, it was him.

"Yes." He replied, standing up from the side of the inn. He smiled again warmly, and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her in a big bear hug,

"We're friends now, aren't we? Friends always cross paths again." His words had shocked her. Helena wasn't a social person, and for almost her entire life, she had dedicated herself to training her body and strength, to become the ultimate weapon. Friends… She had no truly close friends, not after her parents died.

She stood there, stunned, as he hugged her and then let go, turning around with a wave to leave the roof.

"…"

Helena snapped back to the present, her eyes watering as she looked at Dorian.

She bit her lip, watching his form grow smaller and smaller in the distance.

She clenched her fists, her mind going to her goal once more. The obsessive target she must reach, to defeat the Wizard King.

"We will meet again, Dorian." She whispered,

"Friend."

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Dorian stamped his feet on the giant carpet, settling in comfortably. He glanced around at the other passengers, marveling at the magic artifact he was sitting on.

A giant, enormous carpet that, through magic, was able to fly, moving at extremely fast speeds.

He'd purchased a ticket to board one of the Grand Carpets the Golden Carpet Travel Company offered rides on.

Travel, on Taprisha, was a lucrative endeavor. Unlike the minor planet of Hasnorth, Taprisha was a famed Exotic World, with a variety of powerful characters on it. Money follows money, and many lucrative businesses existed here.

The Golden Carpet Travel Company was one such business, widespread across Taprisha, run by a Psuedo-Lord Class Wizard specializing in Wind Magic and artifact creation.

Dorian looked off the edge of the carpet, several meters to his right, watching as they blurred past several clouds. They moved at an incredibly fast speed, blazing across the surface of Taprisha on a predetermined route. Wind brushed up against the carpet and split off from it, unable to harass the passengers on board.

He enjoyed the sights immensely, letting his eyes run over the everchanging clouds around him.

The massive artifact was expensive to maintain, and had cost Dorian 50 gold mints just to purchase a seat on, despite there being more than a hundred other passengers on board. It was also the fastest way Dorian saw that he could get around.

Off on the front of the gold carpet, two Wind Wizards could be seen, one operating the giant artifact while the other on standby, as a backup and as a guard.

He cast his mind back as he meditated on the carpet, thinking about Helena briefly.

He smiled. He had made his second friend in this world. She was an interesting one, that was for sure, but Dorian could feel her good spirit, and good intentions. She was also pretty cute, a thought Dorian immediately shook from his head.

The people that came near him would constantly be put in danger. He couldn't afford to get close to someone. He had already seen what happened with Will.

He sighed.

"How are you holding up, Will?" He muttered, glancing upward. There was no glowing red orb above his head, but he felt Will's presence in the back of his soul, dormant, unmoving.

"Stay strong, Will. I'm on my way." He sighed, feeling morose. For some reason, Dorian had found it hard to control his emotions as of late. He didn't know if it was because of his extended time in that mental prison, but it was proving rather irritating. At least everything seemed to be going right, for now.

Undergoing such a journey, and so many risks, just to save the life of someone he only knew briefly… there were very few people, Dorian thought, that would be willing to do what he was doing.

Will had saved his life, however, and he had made a promise. And he would fulfill that promise. It was, as he always reminded himself, the right thing to do. He had faith that as long as he did the right thing, everything would work out.

"Bleh." He'd said that expression so many times in it felt like it was starting to get old.

"The correct action to take. The just way of doing something. The superb manner of advancing a move." He tossed out a few alternative ways to say it.

A few of the passengers sitting near him, mostly humans with a few of those rock humanoids he'd seen, glanced at him askance as he talked up into the air at no one.

Dorian ignored them, completely unperturbed.

The rest of the flight passed in what felt like nothing, but was actually a couple of hours, crossing thousands of miles. They didn't encounter any dangerous beasts or anything remotely dangerous, the route plotted by knowledgeable Wizards to purposefully avoid anything harmful. It was a fairly peaceful journey.

Dorian soon arrived at the edge of the plateau that housed the City State of Hebbedon.

The city itself didn't look anything special. Dorian could make out large, grey walls, blocking off outsiders surrounding it. Several towering spires could be seen at the middle of the city, made of some bright, white stone.

According to the information he'd gained, it was a city run by humans, one of the few not controlled by powerful vampires on Taprisha. There were several merchant groups that were based here that would regularly send excursions out along the World Bridge to Blizzaria, to hunt for rare treasures, resources, and Magic Herbs that could be found on Blizzaria and the bridge to it.

As Dorian disembarked from the giant flying carpet, leaping off in a single jump, he eyed the city briefly.

He then turned towards the huge World Bridge that towered in his sight.

The World Bridge to Blizzaria pillared upward, a massive column of land, covered in forests and trees. The entirety of this World Bridge was full of a single enormous forest, with dozens of rivers spreading through it.

He took one last glance at the City State before deciding to ignore it.

He had wasted too much time already, and he needed to keep moving. If the city had been a vampire run city, full of Blood Magic shops, he might have reconsidered, just to see if he could snag any useful bloodlines.

Lacking that… It was time he got moving. Joining a merchant's caravan would merely slow him down. He needed to reach Blizzaria, and navigate through the Western Cave System over to the World Bridge to Paxital.

–

Dorian – Soul Status

Soul Stage: Lord Class (Early)

Health: Good (Undergoing Genetic Repair)

Energy: 9,223/10,565

–

He smiled. He had almost fully recovered his strength, faster than Ausra had estimated it would take him.

Soon, he'd be able to transform again, and make use of his other forms, as well as work on absorbing and growing a new form. He was also curious to see if he could combine his Ifrit Bloodline with any of his other forms.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Dorian began to make big, leaping jumps, blasting off towards the World Bridge.

He began practicing his Warm Hands Spell as he ran, determined to fully solidify his magic training, and move on to the next Spell.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

"Huff, huff." A small, dainty humanoid wheezed out deep breaths, her body shaking as she checked herself for injuries. Her long, lustrous silver hair gleamed in the brightly lit underground chamber, the glowing clusters of crystal lighting the walls around her. It was a decent sized room, at least twenty meters across and thirty meters long. The floor and sides of the room were covered in patches of cold, blue ice.

"I'm not injured any worse." The girl spoke aloud, her voice full of relief. Her breath formed into fog, a small cloud that dissipated in the air in front of her.

creeeak

She spun around, raising her arms at the ready as a noise echoed through the small cavern she was standing in. Small pointed teeth revealed themselves as she bared her mouth in a snarl, donning a fierce expression.

Slowly, a small rock rolled to the ground, discharged by shifting ice. She breathed a sigh of relief, shaking her head.

She glanced over her body again, double checking it for any new wounds.

She had a small figure, just a couple inches over 5 feet tall (1.57 meters). She was wrapped up in a form fitting white cloak, showing off her petite figure. This cloak had several long tears in it, exposing milky white skin. Despite that, she seemed unaffected by the bitter cold around her.

Her face was small, almost identical to that of a human's, save for the beautiful, glowing silver pupils she possessed and the two small, tufted fox ears that emerged from her long silver hair.

The Humanoid Form, an Ability several extremely rare and powerful beasts possessed to transform into a bipedal form, of a Lightsworn Fox.

"They're still following me." She muttered, clutching at her side to check on an injury, several cracked bones that were still healing.

"They can't track me through Fate if I stay like this." She looked over her arms and body, shaking her head in disapproval and pouting,

"So ugly."

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

A low, rumbling roar echoed, shaking through the cavern the girl was staying in. She shuddered as she heard it, jumping up and hiding in a small cubby near the roof of the cave room.

"I made it to the western system… all I need to do is reach the Ice Keep, and everything will be fine." She snuggled into the small hole,

"A little rest first never hurt nobody though."

.

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