Chapter 32: Seige of Elvenstar

Cyril reappeared standing suddenly next to Alissa. Everyone around her was stunned, but she merely held his hand and smiled.

"How did your mission go?" she asked, showing concern.

"Everyone in StarRock, dead. Even Kyra" he said as he took out Kyra's skin to show her and wept.

She hugged him and took him to her room and wept together. She kissed him and comforted him as he hugged Kyra's skin in dispair.

Suddenly a loud boom was heard, shocking everyone. The battle has arrived to Elvenstar.

Thor appeared from the Nexus and immediately flew towards the sound of the battle. Cyril and Alissa flew together holding hands using their wind powers. Alissa synced with Cyril perfectly as if they practiced together for years.

As they landed near the city walls, they noticed that the walls have already been breached, and Thor was standing in the hole, holding back an entire army of demons.

Several skinless bombs screamed and ran towards the walls, making more holes on the walls as they killed themselves.

Instantly, vines spread out from his body at an astonishing rate and within seconds, covered the whole battle field.
Lotus flowers shot up devouring all the demons in sight, numbering several hundred..

Cyril screamed as his clothes disintegrated and his body felt like it was about to explode. He looked at Alissa desperately and shouted "Nexus...." and he disappeared.

She was stunned for a second, then she understood and entered the Nexus.

She found Cyril glowing brightly as he was about to explode. Alissa couldn't get near him as the heat he was radiating was too intense.

Suddenly, a green woman appeared and instantly kissed him, joining him as one. Alissa gasped, not knowing what to do, seeing another strange woman joined with her future husband.

But she could see that his energies were being absorbed by the green woman as they were joined. However, after a while, the green woman screamed in pain. She grabbed Cyril's indestructible belt that he still wore to keep on him, but eventually she fell off his body in pain. "Too much, we need another receptor" the green woman said.

Cyril started screaming again as his Merchantile ring burst open, and then the bracelet also burst apart. Instantly, Violet, Kyra's empty skin and skinless bodies appeared.

"This one can absorb the heat", the Nepenthia stated as her vines grabbed Violet's unconscious body and joined her with Cyril's body. Violet's eyes popped open and started screaming, tears coming out of her eyes.

She looked down and saw Cyril's face grimacing in pain as she started absorbing his access energies,

The heat resided and Alissa could get closer to Cyril, still baffled and not knowing what to do. Violet's body grew bigger and bigger, from her original 5 feet to around 5 feet 8 before she too fell off, clutching herself in pain.

Nepenthia's vines grabbed Alissa roughly and shoved her onto Cyril, forcing her body to join Cyril's. She screamed in pain as she absorbed the life energies from him.


By now, Alissa was filled to the brim, but fortunately Cyril was already able to handle the energies as it was at a level he could now control.

Alissa simply fell off Cyril's body, unable to take anymore, clutching her body in pain on the floor.


Slowly, Cyril got up and looked at Nepenthia, Violet and Alissa "Thank you" he said as he approached Alissa and hugged her.

Chapter 31: The 6th Layer of Hell

They entered the realm of demons and found the place filled with fire and brimstone. They were in a large building of some sort, and their entrance shocked the demons that were there.

They killed the demons in the room and started exploring the place. The room next to it was filled with weapons and torn clothes. 

Cyril recognized the clothes to be the ones the Asgardian goddesses and valkyries were wearing. 

He also found Kyra's staff of life and amulet of protection. Her silkweaver undergarments were there too. He quickly kept all of Kyra's possessions and continued looking around.

In the next room, the demons had the Asgadian goddesses and valkyries tied up and were having their way with them as vines suddenly came out of the ground and ate all the demons in the room.

Cyril and Thor released the Asgardians and they reclaimed their weapons and clothes. Together they continued exploring the place, killing all the demons they found.

Drasul reanimated the demons who then proceeded to stand guard, protecting their way back to the portal.

They found a room where demons were beating up and torturing the dwarf brothers, but the brothers merely smiled and took the beating with pride. Thor smashed both demons, rendering them into minced meat, and freed the brothers.

In the last room within the building, they found Hela, bound naked to a table as a demon was torturing her.

Instantly a lotus shot up from the floor, devouring the screaming demon as Cyril released Hela.

"How could a mere demon capture you?" he asked as he gave her a hug.

"They didn't act alone. It was the Dread.... the same force that attacked Asgard" she whispered grimly.

As this was the last room, and he didn't want to go out of the building to fight the entire realm of demons, he decided to get out of there.

The whole group walked back to the portal room. Cyril destroyed the runes that created the portal, closing it permanently. He then opened the Nexus and everyone stepped inside.

Cyril reappeared at Elendil, coming out of Fenrir's bag. The battle was over, and the monster army stood still like giant statues standing virgil outside the city walls, with multiple demons dead at their feet.

The people of Elendil cheered from the inside, but nobody dared approach the large monsters.

Cyril walked in and went directly to Brightstar. "I see the battle is over" Cyril said.

"Thanks to your forces, yes we made it. I see the demons have stopped coming. Was it your doing?" Brightstar asked.

"Yes, I've closed the portal at StarRock. But there are probably demons still around between here to StarRock. I'll take care of them" Cyril replied as he waved his hand and the monster army started their march towards what was once StarRock Academy, killing every demon they saw in their path.

"What of StarRock and the students? Your friend Kyra?" Brightstar asked. 

"There's no one left alive in StarRock. Kyra... Kyra was most probably killed" Cyril answered softly.

"I've got to go. Elvenstar is most likely facing the demons now" he continued. 

Brightstar shook his hand "Good luck Cyril. I wish you well" he smiled weakly.

Cyril nodded and disappeared into the Nexus in front of Brightstar.

Chapter 30: StarRock Destroyed

With Cyril assisting its flight, the eagle took a day to reach StarRock, and it was already late in the evening.

He could see StarRock was completely in ruins. There were no humans around and it was swarming with demons.

Cyril unleashed Thor, who used his full might and started smashing demons to bits. Cyril saw a huge portal near the center of StarRock and jumped off the eagle, landing close to the portal.

As he approached, vines exited his body and he rode on a large vine as vines started spreading filling up the area, destroying all demons nearby.

He saw human skins everywhere. The skins had a large cut through the back and it appeared that the men and women inside were peeled out of their skins.


As he travelled towards the large portal, he stopped and picked up a familiar looking skin. Besides the cruel cut across the back, the skin was flawless and its brown hair flowed past its shoulders.

Cyril refused to believe it and instantly inflated the skin to see what it looked like fully filled. It was Kyra's naked skin, her shape and size matched exactly.

His tears rolled down his face as he suddenly heard a loud roar approaching him. A strange looking demon, 20 feet tall walked towards him. It had the shape of a large humanoid, with two arms and two legs, but its skin was sewn together from the bodies of the humans it took.

Cyril recognized Glorian's bearded face among the skins sewn together, the creatures black liquid mass moving beneath the skin could be seen through the empty eyes and mouth of Glorian and the other people sewn together.

The demon started attacking Cyril with all the different elements, which Cyril deflected with ease. It roared in frustration and charged towards Cyril.

Cyril blocked and held him in place with his vines. The demon was very powerful, and even appeared to shake off the vines. Instantly, Cyril shot a vine up the demon's back, trying to reach for it's organs, but it appeared the demon didn't have any and was completely made of liquid under the skins.

Cyril shot several vines into the demon's mouth and up its back and expanded the vines, making the demon explode, its liquid form gushed out as the skins tore apart.

The demon reformed again and roared at Cyril. "No, not like that" a voice said in Cyril's ear. "May I feed?" she asked. It was Nepenthia, and Cyril nodded.

Instantly out of the ground a huge lotus shaped flower appeared under the demon and gobbled it up like a venus fly trap.Then it disappeared underground again.

All over StarRock, the ground was now covered with vines and suddenly at once, lotus shaped flowers appeared all over, gobbling up every single demon.

Cyril felt a huge swell of energy within him as he absorbed the life force of all the demons in StarRock. 

It was too much power, and he felt as if his body was about to explode. 

There were several hundred demons, and Cyril screamed in pain as all his clothes disintegrated on his body.

"Let me help you" said Nepenthia as she appeared from his body and kissed him. He felt the burned lessened as some of the lifeforce was absorbed as she kissed him. 

She joined with him and as their bodies became one, she absorbed nearly all the life force absorbed from the demons.

Cyril lay exhausted as Nepenthia stretched her beautiful body, smiling at him. "With that meal, I won't need to feed for a while" she said as she kissed him and then disappeared into his body again.

Cyril got up and looked at the portal that was still open. Thor was standing near the portal, with several dead bodies of demons all around him.

Cyril summoned Drasul and together with Thor, they entered the portal.

Chapter 29: Elendil Ablaze

He arrived to a Elendil that was completely in flames. The gates were closed and the walls were in tatters, but the humans were still defending the walls.

Several hundred meters away, the demon army had a camp set up, with flames everywhere. The demons brought out several boxes and opened them, facing the city. People stumbled out in the darkness and walked like zombies towards the city. But they looked different...

He watched in horror as what looked like men and women without their skins scream at the top of their voices and charge the walls from outside, their bodies engulfed with an element. As they reached the walls, they exploded in flames, or water, wind or earth, killing themselves and destroying the wall and the lives defending it.

Cyril and Thor jumped down and landed right next to Brightstar. "About time you showed up. Is help coming from Elvenstar?" Brightstar asked hopefully.

"No, we only just got news as the demons attacked Elanil from this direction" Cyril answered.

"Damn. Then our messenger we sent never reached?" Brightstar continued asking.

"No. I only got here fast because of my mode of transport" Cyril answered. "Have you seen my friend Kyra?" he asked in return.

"No, I assume she was in StarRock. We haven't seen her in weeks. StarRock is probably as heavily guarded as here" Brightstar answered.

Cyril nodded hopefully. Suddenly they heard a loud scream from a familiar sounding voice. They looked into the distance as what looked like a skinless man was engulfed in a huge flame. He must have been a very powerful fire weaver. Instead of running, he flew into the air and shot towards the wall like a meteor, causing a gigantic explosion, completely destroying the wall and knocking Brightstar and Cyril to the floor.

"That... that was Glorian!" yelled Brightstar as he held his bleeding ears. Cyril's eyes opened wide in horror. If that was Glorian, what about Kyra?

As he thought that, the large army of demons started charging towards the large hole in the wall caused by Glorian's suicide. 

He instantly flew towards the demon camp, and in mid air, he unleashed Thor and the monster army that started defending the city.

Thor flew with Cyril, defending him from attacks. In the meantime, the city was guarded by two huge dragons, Fenrir the giant wolf, the giant fire demon Surtur and the ice demon Ymir. Each monster started plowing through the demons, killing several in each strike. He threw his son Fenrir a bag of holding for him to travel back later.

By now, Cyril had landed in the camp and saw several boxes. In horror, he opened them one by one, but as he opened them, men and women with insane eyes looked at him and started screaming. Not wanting to detonate them, he stored them into his bracelet in suspended animation.

Kyra wasn't here. He summoned Thor and touched his hammer Mjolnir again, and instantly both were transported back to the StarRock.

He summoned his eagle and both of them alighted it and rushed to StarRock with the wind assisting them.

Chapter 28: Elvenstar

Cyril landed somewhere in the Grimdeath Forest where they were originally abducted. He found a clean lake and took Alissa out from his bracelet.

He quickly put his lips onto hers and suck the paralyzing fluid out of her mouth and nose. He spit out the fluid, feeling his lips go numb. He then started trying to revive her by blowing into her mouth and pushing on her naked chest. She was still covered in the paralyzing liquid and his hands were turning numb.

She opened her eyes as she felt his lips on hers, and felt him touch her chest and pumped air into her lungs, but was still unable to move or talk.

Looking that she was conscious, Cyril smiled and picked her up to the nearby water, and gently washed the paralyzing fluids off her body and as he did.

He then brought her back to shore and took out clothes from the Nexus and a cloth to dry her body.

"We....we're alive" she exclaimed as she slowly sat up. "Thank you" she embraced him as she gave him a passionate kiss. He felt himself getting aroused as she kissed and embraced him.

She rolled onto him and got on top of him. As he sat on him, they were merged as one. Cyril gasped as she kissed him again, and continued for hours.

Alissa laid in Cyril's arms, exhausted. "You were my first. In Elven customs, it means you will be my Shan La, my husband. We will have to be married" she stated.

Cyril was stunned. "You look conflicted... is it because of that other girl with you, Kyra Silkweaver?" Alissa asked, her beautiful eyes staring into his. "In a way, yes Kyra is an issue. But also, I though you and Brightstar....." Cyril stammered.

"Layton and I are nothing more than friends. He may have had a crush on me. But he is too young for me" she laughed.

"But I'm 16!" Cyril stated. "Not in my eyes. I can see your soul. You are not 16 any more than I am, are you?" she smiled knowingly. "And don't worry. I am not the jealous type if you have more lovers than me. After all, my race is extremely long lived".

Cyril nodded and smiled. Indeed the elves are a mysterious race and were wise beyond men. She kissed him again and they got up and dressed. He summoned his own gigantic eagle, and both of them alighted it as they flew towards Elvenstar.

"What happened in that dimension of vines?" Alissa asked as they held hands. "That ability is mine now" he said with authority, as vines appeared from behind him, hovering in the air menacingly.

Alissa got frightened and let his hand go for a while, before holding his hand again, seeing Cyril fully control the vines. Then the vines disappeared from behind him.

She wondered what powers this mysterious being had. She had heard from Glorian, the headmaster of StarRock that he had unique abilities. She embraced him again and kissed him, as they continued on their way.

Their huge eagle eventually arrived at Elvenstarm capital of the Elvan Nation of Elanil. They rushed to meet her father, the legendary King Aruthal.

As they entered the throne room, King Aruthal rushed towards them and gave Alissa a large hug. "Where have you been? You were supposed to arrive days ago." he asked with relief.

"Its a long story father. I want you to meet Cyril.... my Shan La." she said softly in a shy manner. "Your Shan La?" King Aruthal asked and looked at Cyril with wise eyes that seemed to pierce his soul.

"You...interest me future son in law" he said without even questioning why Alissa chose such a young looking teen. "Now tell me what happened during the trip"

Cyril told the story briefly, not revealing too much about his own powers. He explained how the other elves died on the other reality. Finally he asked for help with Violet.

The Elven healers appeared upon being summoned and Cyril revealed the comatose Violet. They examined her, but even their magics could not heal her. Disappointed, Cyril again kept her in suspended animation in his bracelet.

"I am sorry we cannot be of help. However, there is also an issue of a wedding to organise" King Aruthal declared.

"Damn, this wedding thing is moving so fast. How did this happen? I better talk to Kyra" Cyril thought to himself.

"Excuse me for a second" Cyril said, and suddenly vanished into the Nexus to the shock of all the Elves. To them, he simply vanished without a trace.

Cyril entered the Nexus and went to Kyra's portal, but the portal was closed. It was as if Kyra's bag of holding was destroyed.

He immediately reappeared in Elvenstar again and asked urgently "Is there any news from Erendil or StarRock?".

"No, why are you asking?" asked King Aruthal, sensing his urgency. Suddenly a messenger sprinted across the hall and passed a note to the King. He read it and his face became grim.

"We have been attacked from the direction of Erandalusia. The borders are being overrun with what appears to be demons" he said grimly.

"Demons? How can demons come from Erandalusia" asked Alissa in a concerned tone. "I think Erandalusia has been taken over" Cyril stated grimly.

"I hope we can leave the wedding for later. I have to return" Cyril said urgently.

Alissa and Aruthal nodded. Alissa embraced him and kissed him. "When will you leave?" she asked gently.

"I will be there now. Defend your borders, and hopefully I will meet you from that side" he said as he reluctantly let her go.

He took her hand and they both disappeared into the Nexus. Seeing that they will be bound, Cyril handed Alissa a Nexus bag, explaining the Nexus. She was shocked when she saw his monster army and Thor standing ready.

Explaining how the Nexus bag works, Alissa understood instantly and slowly kissed him goodbye. She understood that he needed to go and she had to stay at Elvenstar. She exited the Nexus and appeared suddenly next to her surprised father.

Cyril then ran towards the Hela's portal, but discovered that it too was destroyed. So was all the portals to the goddesses and dwarves.

"How could that be? Are there no portals to Erandalusia left?" he thought. He suddenly had an idea. He summoned Thor and as he came, he put his hand no Mjolnir, manipulating the space time energy on Mjolnir. As he did, he was teleported to the Star Rock in the Grimdeath Forest, between Elendil and StarRock Academy.

He summoned his eagle and Thor and they flew towards Elendil. The Grimdeath Forest was on fire, and the stench of death was everywhere as dead carcasses of creatures were all over the blackened forest floor.

He didn't know where Kyra was, so he decided to go towards Elendil and commanded the eagle to fly there as fast as it could. He used his wind abilities to hasten the flight, taking only half a day rather than 2 days from where he was.

Chapter 27: Nepenthia

Cyril awoke and found himself trapped inside some form of plant that was secreting chemicals all over his body. The chemicals had paralyzed him and he could no longer move. His breathe was getting shallow too as it was getting difficult to breathe.

He tried to summon wind to protect himself, or to cut himself out, but it was useless. The tried to control the fluid chemical on him like he could control water, but it also failed.

The vines actually radiated with the energy of life, thus it was able to easily heal itself from any elemental attack. He knew that if he couldn't get himself out soon, he would be food for the plant.

He thought about using the opposite energy, the energy of death. But in order to use this energy, he needed the energy to come from somewhere.

Suddenly, he felt someone or something near him die. He reached out and controlled the energy to attack the plant that was engulfing him.

Immediately the plant withered and dropped him to the ground, which was also covered with vines. As he did, many other vines started assailing him. He absorbed the death energy from the plant he just destroyed and started expanding the death energy, killing the next vine and the next.

His body was still paralyzed but he could control the death energy with his mind. Each vine that he attacked with death energy, the whole plant dies, so he could start to see more and more plants dying. He looked to the side and saw a dead elf that must have been the source of the initial death energy.

He cleared a area of 10 meters all around him, all the vines that continued to attack him all withered and perished. Under him he felt water and discovered that he was in a swamp. 

He controlled the water to wash off the digestive fluids from his body, and he discovered that he was naked except for his indestructible belt made from Baldur's skin, his bracelet and his Merchantile ring. Every other piece of clothing was dissolved.

He slowly got up and walked blindly towards a random direction, killing all the plants within a 10 meters of him. He couldn't see where he was heading anywhere as vines continuously attacked from all directions.

As he walked, he heard a thud behind him. One of the elves was lying dead, naked and partially digested. He must have fallen from one of the pitchers full of digestive fluids. He shook his head and continued walking.

He wondered what happened to Alissa, if she had already met a similar fate. Collecting the death energies all around him, he suddenly surged his attack and exhausted 90% of all the death energy he had collected. A radius of 500 meters all around him all died.

"Damn" he thought to himself as several other dead elves fell to the ground. If they were not already dead, his release of energy certainly killed them. He absorbed what ever other death energies he could.

As he looked towards the outer ring of dead plants, he noticed one of the pitchers with what looked like someone still inside. He was unable to see who that person was, or even if they were alive or dead, but he rushed over nevertheless and killed the plant.

As the pitcher fell to the ground, Alissa's naked body poured out together with the digestive chemicals of the plant. Cyril immediately rushed over and started cleaning her body of the paralyzing fluids.

She was not breathing and Cyril immediately started giving her CPR, blowing into her pretty mouth and pressing on her naked chest, trying to pump air into her body. Finally, she started breathing, but it was shallow and she was still unconscious.

The vines started attacking again, but he couldn't put up his shield of death indiscriminately without killing Alissa. He immediately placed Alissa into his stasis bracelet together with Violet and started his defensive death shield again.

Suddenly a loud voice boomed from the air "Who dares?" asked a female voice from the distance.

In an instant a large vine approached him with a woman on it. She was naked and had light green skin and dark green hair that was long enough to touch the ground and carried herself with an arrogance that commands fear and respect.

"I dare. I am Cyril Soulsong, who are you?" asked Cyril.

"I am Nepenthia, Master of this Vine and guardian of life in this realm. Why do you bring death here?" she asked with an arrogant tone.

"Guardian of life? You brought death to my companions. Your vines brought us here!" yelled Cyrus.

"Insolence!" cried Nepenthia as she controlled two gigantic vines to smash at him. Although they were as large as the vines that snatched the giant eagle, they withered to nothingness whenever they entered within 50 meters of Cyril.

He summoned Hela and Drasul out of the Nexus, and together they unleashed enormous waves of death evergy, killing everything in sight.

Cyril could only control existing energies, but he could not generate any himself. However, Drasul emanated pure death energy, and Hela was death impersonate. 

The swamp turned black with dead plants for 100 km around, leaving nothing alive except for Nepenthia writhing in pain near Cyril. She emanated immensely powerful life energies and was thus not easily killed. 

"Please... I submit... spare me and I will serve you..forever" she cried, her beautiful body spasming in pain. 

"Why did you attack us?" Cyril demanded

"I... I need powerful life energies to survive but my might is not something to look down on. I devoured everything in this world as I conquered every living thing here. I needed to feed, thats why I attacked your party, as I had with other worlds." she admitted.

"What do you mean you will serve me?" asked Cyril, intrigued. 

"I will bind with you, then my body and my vines will be yours forever" she answered. 

Cyril raised his hand as Hela and Drasul stopped emitting death energies. The vines were still outside the black circle of dead plants.

Nepenthia got off the ground and walked towards Cyril, who was mesmerized by her beauty.

He got aroused as the beauty embraced him and kissed him passionately. As she did, he felt energies of life flowing into him, healing all his wounds. 

"Amazing" he thought as indeed Nepenthia was very powerful in life energies. Suddenly, he felt her engulf her from below as they joined as one. Life energies suddenly flowed between them as they were intertwined physically. 

He felt something enter him from the back and merged with his prostate deep in his body. "This is my seed, and where I will dwell for as long as you live" she whispered directly into his mind.

They intertwined for hours, and when they were done, Cyril lay exhausted with Nepenthia laying in his arms.

The entire planet was bare as all the vines disappeared. Only Hela and Drasul stood there still and unmoving. Hela smirked and winked at him "Nice one"

Cyril smiled at her and opened the portal for Hela and Drasul. 

Just as he was about to follow them, he suddenly asked Nepenthia "You can open portals to other realms?"

"Yes, portals are not beyond me" she answered. "Can you open a portal to where we were taken?" he asked.

She smiled and held his hand. As she her hand intertwined with his, a huge portal opened. 

She disappeared into the seed, and he shut his Nexus portal. Looking at the dead planet, he looked in amazement at how powerful Nepenthia was.

Then he flew himself into the portal.

Chapter 26: Journey to Elvenstar

Cyril agreed to meet Alissa in the morning and travel to Elvenstar with her.

Cyril had his Valkyries and Kronian's forces looking for their parents. So Cyril wanted to get Violet healed, and going to Elvenstar may accomplish this.

Kyra decided to return to StarRock and continue with her studies, and simultaneously go back and forth with Elendil to monitor the search for their parents.

She would join Cyril by portal once he reached Elvenstar, as she always wanted to visit the legendary city of the elves. 

As Cyril joined Alissa on her giant eagle, Kyra departed with Glorian on their eagle to StarRock.

Cyril sat next to Alissa on the royal eagle, which was as large as the eagle that took them to StarRock. They were encompanied by a team of 20 elven windriders, all the personal bodyguards of the princess.

On the journey, Cyril got to know Alissa better. Apparently, she was a 800 year old elf, but she still looked like she was only 20. She was next in line to succeed her father, the legendary King Aruthal of Elanil, the king that has ruled since millenia.

She happily chatted about her time adventuring the world, the most recent being 20 years ago with Layton Brightstar and his team, which also included Glorian, one of the most famous fire weavers in existence.

They flew over the portion of Grimdeath Forest that was within Elanil's boundaries for a couple of days when suddenly they flew into a fierce storm that appeared out of nowhere.

The giant eagle screeched as it tried to escape but it was being sucked into the storm. 

Cyril sensed something strange about the storm as time-space energies were flowing all around them. As he looked out, he then understood that the maelstrom was formed by a portal in the eye of the storm.

The elves were all frantically trying to assist the eagle escape the storm by trying to control the wind. Princess Alissa was a famous wind weaver herself, and she too was struggling to assist the eagle escape.

Cyril extended his hands and started bending the wind himself. Although it was not enough to escape the storm, he managed to form a cocoon of wind around the eagle so as not to get shredded by the wind.

Suddenly, a huge vine appeared from within the portal and grabbed the eagle and pulled it into the portal. The portal then closed stranding the elves and Cyril on the other side.

The vine's strength was incredible, it broke through the cocoon easily and crushed the eagle as it screamed its dying breath. Cyril pushed himself and Alissa out of harm's way, but several of the elves were smashed together with the eagle.

Cyril flew using the wind, with Alissa holding his hand as multiple vines appeared and started attacking them. The whole land was covered in vines, and the vines seemed to be sentient were actively attacking them.

They dodged several attacks from the smaller vines. The vines were smaller than the gigantic one that killed the giant eagle, but the vines were still the size of a human limb.

Several elven guards were also flying around them, but one by one they were caught by the vines and pulled into the vine forest below. 

Cyril and Princess Alissa flew frantically, hand in hand as all the other elven guards were captured. Finally several vines managed to catch both Cyril and Alissa and they were separated as they were pulled into the underbrush.

Chapter 25: Return to Elendil

Cyril arrived in the midst of a battle. Kyra and Skadi was facing around 70 mercenaries. The mercenaries were actually quite well organized, with Kyra being pushed back by attacking fire and earth weaving mercenaries. Skadi was fighting 20 or so mercenaries and was fighting to a standstill with them. Kyra and Skadi were slowly losing against the larger numbers of mercenaries.

Cyril yelled at Kyra "Close your ears!" as he pulled out his whistle. Kyra froze in mid battle, remembering the effects of the whistle in Elendil, and immediately closed her ears while avoiding the attacks of her assailants.

As Cyril blew his whistle, all the mercenaries within the reach of the whistle started convulsing as their stomachs contracted and shot explosive diarrhea from their asses. Every one of them keeled over in pain as they curled up their body into a ball in a puddle of smelly diarrhea.

Cyril completely turned the tide of the battle, and by the time Thor came charging over several minutes later, the battle was already over. With a quick gesture, Cyril beheaded all the mercenaries with his wind blades.

Besides a few minor cuts, Kyra was unharmed. Skadi again ran down the road towards Elendil to scout ahead. Cyril, Kyra and Thor took a slow stroll, spreading the word to head home and giving out gold to everyone they met on the way to Elendil. Yet all along the way, there was no sign of Cyril and Kyra's parents.

By the time they reached Elendil, they found the large city devastated by the dragon attacks. They could not even find an inn with any room to spare. So they found a quiet corner in the city, and Thor stood sentry there with a Nexus bag while Cyril and Kyra traveled through the Nexus and lived in the Bloodwolf Fortress.

The Bloodwolf Fortress, was renamed the Keep.The Keep by now had been thoroughly cleaned by Drasul and the undead, and Cyril cremated all the undead bodies after that.

It took around two months before the Valkyries and the dwarven brothers Sindri and Brokkr arrived in the Keep. They had helped rebuild the walls and amenities of the towns and cities along the way and distributed lots of gold to help the people rebuild their lives. But still there was no sign of Cyril and Kyra's parents.

Repairing and redecorating the Keep took 2 days, after which the valkyries and the dwarves continued in their mission to Elendil to help rebuild it. 

Cyril spent some time in the Nexus making more puppets. He now had 1 King Werewolf and 15 female werewolves as puppets.

He rearranged his forces. All the monsters, and Thor returned into the Nexus. The Keep was the base of the puppet Goddesses Freya and Skadi, the Valkyries of Asgard and the Dwarf bothers Sindri and Brokkr, and they independently went in and out as they needed to help the surrounding towns and Elendil.

The actions of Cyril and Kyra in helping the people were pretty obvious and was noticed by the Governor of Elendil, and they received a invitation to meet him.

Governor Layton Brightstar was once a warrior of renown, who after retiring and was appointed governor of Elendil. In his adventurer days, he mixed well with elves, dwarves and many other races, leading missions on his many adventures. He was the ideal choice for governor as he has good contacts with the races. In fact, there were rumors that he once was the paramour of Princess Alissa of Elanil, the Elven kingdom that borders Erandalusia.

Cyril and Kyra arrived at the Governor's mansion and was ushered into the a large study room. A few distinguished people were there waiting for them. Kyra recognized Glorian, the headmaster of StarRock Academy among the people there.

"Welcome to my abode. My name is Layton Brightstar" the governor said as he shook their hands, and started introducing the rest.

"This is Princess Alista of Elanil" he continued as a beautiful elf bowed gracefully and shook their hands. She looked no more than 20 years old, yet she was already a legend for decades.

"And I am Glorian. Finally we meet Cyril Soulsong. We had thought you dead. And you Kyra Silkweaver, how are you seen about and yet attending your classes in StarRock?" the ancient looking headmaster smiled cheekily.

Between the three of them, they were the governors of the 3 nearest cities.

"My name is Kronian. I am the General of the 13th Brigade of the Erandalusia Army. My forces are in charge of security for this region." said the stern looking man.

"We brought you here today to introduce ourselves, and for us to find out more about you. Were you the ones who got rid of the dragon? Did you have anything to do with the dead mercenaries on the road to Elendil? And do you know who the group of blonde hair people came from, the ones giving out gold and repairing the towns and cities?" asked Layton Brightstar.

Cyril looked at them grimly. What should he say? He definitely won't tell them about his live puppets, his Asgardian identity or any of the other unbelievable incidents. Kyra was completely silent. She didn't want to reveal anything accidentally, so she let Cyril do the talking.

"No need to tell us too much. We only want to know if you are responsible for any of them." Alissa smiled.

Cyril nodded "Then I will admit that I was responsible for all of it" he answered.

"Hhh... how?" stammered Kronian. But Governor Brightstar waved the question aside. "Then you have our thanks. You may reveal how you did it, if you so wish, but right now that is unimportant. We simply wanted to confirm our suspicions" he smiled.

"My scouts watched you from afar as you defeated that dragon with your team that included that massive hammer wielding warrior and your own dragon" said Alissa.

"And we have received numerous reports about your group of beautiful blonde ladies giving aid, and weird dwarves who repaired and rebuilt buildings in supernatural speed." stated Kronian.

"Yes, we know quite a bit about you" stated Governor Brightstar

"So what do you want of me?" asked Cyril

"Nothing. We merely want to award you our thanks, perhaps with an official public reward. We also want to get to know you better. One with your abilities and resources will be a great boon to our region" stated Brightstar.

"I would rather these not be made public" stated Cyril with a frown.

"Oh? A anonymous savior is it? Then do you have anything you want or need? What are your plans?" asked Brightstar

"And are you going to come back to StarRock?" interrupted Glorian with a smile.

Cyril smiled. "I am still looking for my father Barthelomew Soulsong and Kyra's mother Victoria Merchantile. They've been missing since the dragon attacked months ago" he answered.

The group nodded. "We'll assist in looking for them with our full resources" stated Kronian.

"I also need medical help for my friend. She was badly wounded by the dragon, and I have not been able to revive her" Cyril stated as he retrieved Violet from his bracelet to everyone's shock. She was dressed in animal skin and was unconscious.

"Bring our physicians" commanded Brightstar. Glorian, the headmaster of StarRock and infamous fire weaving wizard looked in shock.

"So Violet was with you. I thought she died...but then we thought you died as well" he stated. He knew about Violet, the mysterious 15 year old master of fire weaving, but never got to meet her.

He extended his hand towards Violet to feel her fire aura and his eyes opened in shock.

He could sense fire energy leaking from her, but could not do anything to help her. Her fire was pure, purer than he's ever felt before. He shook his head "I'm afraid I can't help her at all" he sighed.

Within minutes, the reknowned physicians from Elendil appeared and bowed.

"Where is the patient?" asked the head physician by the name of Krotus asked.

The physicians took a look at her and were puzzled. Although her body was unharmed, the longer she stayed there, her lifeforce grew weaker and weaker.

Cyril immediately placed her back in suspended animation in his bracelet. "What did you do with her? Where did she go?" asked Krotus in shock.

"I've placed her in my stasis dimension, where she will be frozen in time, until I can get a cure for her" he replied.

The whole room was shocked and confused. They understood the concept, but what kind of person was Cyril to own such a wondrous device?

"Perhaps the elven healers of Elanil may be able to help" stated Alissa. "Would you like to come with me to Elvenstar, the capital of Elanil?" she asked

"Yes, I think I would like that" smiled Cyril. They continued talking the rest of the night.