Date: May 7th 2018

  Helo stares up at the two girls with a strained smile. In his mind he is thinking. Owe, my body hurts so badly. Did they seriously feed me their blood. When did they even decide to do something like that. His smile continues to get more strained as the blushes and shock on the girls faces continue to get worse.

  “Um. We.” Alli looks at her bloody hand like she is surprised that it is still there. Lowering her hand and wiping her blood all over her pants she keeps speaking like nothing happened. Hinata sitting next to her doesn’t say a word, but she also moves her hand.

  “We… I… leveled up. I am here to ask you what you think I should pick as a skill. I’m not sure why Hina-Chan is here.” Alli says while throwing Hinata under the bus.

  Hinata gives Alli an affronted look, “I am here for the same reason.” She says while placing her hands in her lap and looking at Helo expectantly. “I reached level 40.”

  Helo stares at her for a second before coming to his sense. “Congrats! That is so great Hinata!”

  “AHEM.” Helo’s head snaps over to Alli.

  “Oh yeah. Great job. How are your skill?” Helo is happy, that even though he is put in this awkward situation, he has the mental capacity to not say the exact same thing to both girls.

  Alli’s cute pout turns into a beam. “So I got five skill choices! The first is a boost to my main skill, ‘Runic Construct’ it lets me boost the power of a rune, I think it works in crafting too. The second skill is a shield skill, the third is a movement skill, the fourth is a melee skill. I really like that one, it has to do with making my hammer hit harder. The fifth skill is a boost to my mana regen for a short time.”

  Alli looks at Helo as he thinks about her options. He knows what skill he would choose. The movement skill, but is that the right option for Alli.

  “Well, you think Helo-Kun, ill tell you about my skills.” Hinata sits up properly and reads them from her status. In the end she has five choices as well. First, she has a skill that creates a personal illusion for an individual. Right now, her skills cast in the air around her. This option is a more powerful single target illusion. Her second skill is the opposite; she can cast an illusion over a wider area. The third skill is also a movement skill like Alli. The fourth skill is a magical burst. This acts as a wave of magical force that creates room around Hinata. The final skill is a powerful slash ability. It creates an arc made from magic that shoots from the end of her blade.

  Taking his time to think about both girls builds, Helo tells them that they should take the movement skills. Both shoot him down. Helo understands that they are different from him, but he thinks that a movement skill is something everyone should have.

  With a groan Helo asks them what skills they want. “I want the hammer skill.” Alli says with a beaming smile from her place over Helo. He is laying on his bed. His body is still in to much pain.

  “So, take it.” Helo tells her, he was expecting some push back, but nope.

  “OKAY!” Alli says with a smile. Helo can see a light flash in her eyes and he realizes that she didn’t care about his opinion, she just wanted affirmation.

  “And what skill do you want?” He asks Hinata.

  “Mhm… I think I would prefer the slash skill. I can already create illusions and if I work on my spells, I can make them more powerful. But it has the potential to not only add range, but also a small AOE effect.” She says while looking up in thought.

  “Makes sense.” Helo says to her. It only takes her a moment before she nods and takes it as well. Helo sighs at this, but he knows that both girls already have abilities that can shield them. Movement isn’t the only way to stay safe.

  “Well let’s get you in the bath. You stink.” Alli says and grabs his arm.

  Hinata hums and grabs his other arm. Both girls pull-carry him into the bathroom and set him on a stool. They quickly strip him of his dirty clothes, all that he has left are his heart spotted white magical boxers. They help him into the bath and Helo lays back in the warm water with a sigh.

  Almost falling asleep Helo is woken with a start when he hears splashing to his right. Turning his head, he can see an almost naked Alli getting into the bath beside him. She is wearing a bikini that really doesn’t leave much to his imagination. Alli is one of the shorter girls in the party, but she has a very full figure and very fit, and right now it is almost bursting out of her swimsuit.

  Hearing another splash to his left, Helo closes his eyes and does his best not to look. Temptation wins, Helo looks. Looking left he can see Hinata sliding into the tub. She is wearing a tight one-piece swimsuit that has a slit between her breasts and down to past her abdomen. She has a slimmer figure than Alli, but it could still be described as having a full figure.

  Squeezing his eyes shut he faces forward and hopes that he remains decent. Both girls laugh at him as they lay back in the tub and relax.

  It has been a little a little over a month and the party has seen considerable growth in that time. For the three months before, they fought but never beat the rifts. Now they are clearing rift breaks and the rifts themselves.

  They have seen all different types of combat now. They fought in the towns, a city, in the woods, fields, they have even been tasked with holding back a tier 2 rift. They didn’t have to beat the rift, just hold on long enough for help to arrive. They have been through all of that, but they still have two months to go. It has gotten to the point that they have to clear breaks at least once a day, usually twice.

  Walking through the main Kashiwagi area on the western side of Mount Fuji, Helo and Rocco are on their way to the Hidden City. Exciting the courtyard and by passing the buildings that surround it, they find themselves on a decent sized path that snakes its way up the mountain.

  It doesn’t take them long to find the entrance. Where the tree line meets the rocky peak, there is a massive cavern. Walking up to it Helo has been here before, but every time still gives him a little awe. The cavern entrance is enchanted will illusions to seem like a deep dark hole. In truth, the back of the cavern glows with an orange light, like a dragon preparing to rain down fire.

  This sight always gives Helo the feeling of awe. They are entering into the heart of a volcano, like some cheesy villain lair. “Why are we coming here again?” Rocco says in an annoyed tone, like a teenager who doesn’t want to go to the doctor. He doesn’t care for Helo; his mistress gives him far more attention than he deserves.

  “I told Alli that I needed someone to come with me to help on an array. You were the only person available.” Helo says with a sigh. Rocco has been complaining the entire trip, and Helo would have preferred anyone but him.

  “Ha. I wasn’t free, I was doing my job.” Rocco stops his foot and looks back down the mountain.

  “You were following Hinata around while she was helping Aiko and the maids with laundry. While they were gossiping. In her own house. In her own territory.” Helo just shakes his head and enters into the cavern. The dark affinity illusion does little to hide the cavern from his gaze. He can see the bright orange glow coming from the throat of the tunnel. It doesn’t make him feel better though, the brightness is increasing.

  His ability to see past the darkness is increasing. Usually, he has to activate his bloodline. But ever since a month ago, when he got the blessing from the kitsune goddess. She did something about his spiritual sight being opened through his third eye. He still isn’t sure what all that means. But he does know that it helps him see and understand himself more during meditation.

  He has theorized that near his diaphragm is a location where the physical, meets the spiritual. He also guessed it was where the system resides. With his spiritual sight awakened he can see it more clearly. Before all he could see was his own energy and channels. Now he can see how all of it connects together.

  He is still trying to understand what is happening, and he has had no luck in summoning those flames. But the main benefit that Helo received was the goddesses impromptu lesson on balance.

  Through his spars with Akira, Helo has started progressing his body’s affinity to vitality and life energy. It has boosted his regeneration and makes it easier for his body to handle his bloodline. What he was missing was progressing his mind. His efforts to give his mental energy a dark affinity are not progressing well. This means that his ‘Bloodline Awakening’ still makes him apathetic. But he has been making progress.

  Walking deeper into the cavern Helo can feel as the temperature starts to grow hotter. The interior of the volcano is supposed to be hot. It is where the kitsune practice turning their spiritual flames, into physical ones. But it has never been this hot before.

  The main cavern is in the center of the volcano and is held together by powerful arrays. It takes up the interior of the volcano and all along the walls and on the streets, you can see the flowing of magma. The sight is amazing and surreal, but at the same time it is worrying. Within the mountain the city is about two miles across and the cavern reaches up over one thousand feet.

  There are thousands of people living here from dwarves, kitsune, humans, elves, and many other fantasy races. But if Yoeko and Helo can’t find out why the mountain seems to be waking up, then they will all die or lose their homes.

  The exact center of the cavern is where the town hall resides. Within the town hall is the focal point for the mountain sized array. Helo makes his way to the town hall with Rocco in toe. Now that they have entered the mountain Rocco has complained about the heat. Wanting to yell at the guy, Helo holds himself back. He still needs someone to help Yoeko and himself.

  Walking through the city it is an amalgamation of powerful roots and stone. Helo enjoys seeing how a city was created inside a volcano. While turning a corner Helo can feel eyes on him. Looking quickly, he can see three men, two are wearing a kitsune styled outfit and the other is wearing something resembling a tree. Turing to Rocco he asks, “Do you know what they are wearing?”

  Rocco looks and just snorts. “Idiots. They are a bloodline purity group. There are people that think the Kashiwagi family isn’t fit to rule, due to their mixed dryad and kitsune bloodline.” Under his breath he mutters “Racists.”

  “Does Akira-Sama do anything about it?” Helo asks with a head tilt.

  Rocco sneers at Helo. He hates how familiar Helo is with Kashiwagi-Sama. “No. They haven’t done anything bad; they are just a group of people that want more power.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Not sure what to do about it, Helo just shrugs and carries on his way to the town hall.

  As he approaches the town hall there are two guards standing out front. They are wearing plate armor that shimmers with the hint of magic. Helo assumes that in this heat, part of the enchantment on the armor is to keep it cool. “Stop there.” The first guard yells in a young voice. “I identify yourself.”

  The second smacks the first one the head. The helmet meets gauntlet with a “Clangggg” that rings through the area. “That is Helo and Rocco. Teammates of the princess you idiot.” The man whisper shouts.

  This makes Rocco stand taller and puff out his chest a little. But Helo just steps forward and withdraws his tablet. “No, no. It’s fine. Someone might be tampering with the arrays. If that is true, it’s better to be cautious.”

  Holding his tablet out to the second guard he gives Helo a look and shrugs. “Sure kid. Someone might try to masquerade as you. But nobody can mimic that aura of yours.”

  Tilting his head in surprise Helo looks at the guard again, not with his physical sight but with his aura. Infront of him the guard blazes with a power and heat that almost matches the volcano around them. Scratching his head, he realizes that the first guard can’t sense his aura like the second can. “Ah. You got a point there.”

  “You do to kid.” He says in a gruff voice. “There are only so many of us tier 3’s around.” He tosses the tablet back at Helo and flicks his hand over his shoulder. “Now get up there. Mistress Yamamoto is waiting for you.”

  Walking past the armored man, Helo takes one last look over his shoulder. This time, instead of using his aura or his eyes, he tries to tap into his new title. With some surprise he can see a whisps of color leaking from the man’s armor. He has no idea what any of it mean but looking toward the first guard, the second has a much more intimidating spiritual appearance.

  Entering the building he quickly finds his way to the array focal point. Yoeko is sitting on the group and staring at runes. Helo steps up beside her and asks. “Did you find anything?” Helo asks and she doesn’t respond. Waiting a few seconds, he asks again, same thing. After that Helo takes a seat near the wall and waits for her to be ready.

  Rocco is standing beside him and is visibly shaking in annoyance. All of this, walking here, dealing with the heat, leaving his post, to side around and wait.

  Helo just ignores the angry kitsune male and waits for Yoeko. Eventually she does lift her head and she finally realizes that Helo is here. “Oh! Helo-San! When did you get here?”

  “Only a few moments ago Sensei.” Helo answers. She doesn’t need to know that he has been waiting for over an hour. Helo is about to ask if she found anything but he stops as he looks at her grave face.

  She fidgets a little, like she doesn’t want to bear bad news. “Haaaa. There is a problem.” She pulls Helo to the array and starts pointing out specific lines and runes. “Now I have the knowledge and skills to handle this array. There are a few aspects to this array. One, it controls the heat. Two, it restricts and alters magma flow. Three, it strengthens the rock and keeps the mountain stable. The external barrier is a separate array. This one is all about keeping the mountain stable and livable.”

  “So, what is the issue?” Helo asks her.

  “Well, I have the skills to calibrate the array based on geometric readings and magma flow. But something is wrong, for the last few months things have been slowly becoming more unstable.”

  “Do you know why?” He asks, his tone is starting to get a little worried. If something happens to the mountain then not only with the Kashiwagi Clan be in danger, but all the civilian around the location. That is over one-hundred-million-people.

  At that question she looks at him with some worry. “I believe this is man made issues. All my geometric sensers as picking up the same readings. While studying the runes I found a few were tampered with. I have logs of my own actions. Changing flow rates, temperature control and venting. But my runes have be calibrated to make issues, not stop them.”

  “Can you tell anything else?” He asks her. She shakily nods her head, but in that moment the doorway into the array room swings open. Yoeko bows low as Akira steps into the building.

  “Kashiwagi- Sama.” She says before rising.

  “It is good to see you little Yoeko-San. You look a little stressed. What did you find.” Akira gets straight to business with a serious tone.

  “It isn’t good.” She pulls out a notepad from her dimensional ring. She inherited it from her father. “Two months ago, I noticed a unique magma flow that was disrupting the balance.” She flips a few pages and shows it to Akira. “I came in and changed things. The flow was easily diverted. I didn’t think anything of it.”

  “And now.” He asks her while looking into her eyes.

  “I think someone is trying to destabilize the mountain. I came in today because my readings were off, only to find my work tampered with. Here.” She points to a section detailing how she calibrated the array. Then at the array itself. “It doesn’t match the runes I imputed, nor is it my own writing.”

  “So, from what I can see. Over two months ago, someone manually directed a magma flow to build pressure. But when you easily fixed it, they came in here. This is strange, this is a hidden city, and the Town Hall is protected…” He looks at her notes and checks the dates. “They came about a month ago and modified your work.”

  Yoeko nods and Akira looks between her, Helo and the awkward Rocco. Raising an eye at him, Akira looks away. “Can you fix it.” He asks.

  “Yes, but it will take a lot of work. I can’t just turn it back to how I had it, but things are already messed up. Ill need to go through all the sensors and manually fix all the array junctions all over the mountain.”

  “Okay. Get to it.” Looking at Rocco and Helo he says. “I’m suspending your trial, this takes precedence.” With a nod everyone gets to work.

  It has been over two days of constant enchanting and reading. Usually, this process can be completed within the town hall where all the array lines meet. But because the array was tampered with, they have to make sure everything is working properly. Most of the tier 3 individuals and a handful of tier 2s are helping as well.

  They have them checking thousands of sensors, using their magic and aura to fix things, and some are searching for the culprits. The more they look, the worse everything turned out. Sensors were messed with, lines broken and things kept adding up. But the mountain never erupted.

  In the Town Hall Yoeko is heading up the effort to fix the mountain sized array. Many people have tried to take control from her. Most are trying because they want to be able to take credit. When the truth is only Yoeko and a handful of others are able to modify the array and work on it.

  “This doesn’t make sense!” She yells. All around the Town Hall conference room people stop to stare at her.

  If you’re having issues Ms. Yoeko, maybe a more experienced eye should take a look.” This is one of the elders that has been trying to get overly involved.

  Yoeko turns to look at the man and just glares at him. After a few seconds she says. “Fuck off.” Many in the room have affronted looks due to her words. But those that actually know how serious this is understand that she is the best bet at fixing it.

  Akira is also in the room, and he turns to her. “What is it?” The fact that he is overlooking her attitude forces the other to do so as well.

  “With all the changes and modifications someone should have seen it. They had to physically go to these locations and make the changes.” She pulls on her hair and rubs her face.

  “They? You are sure?” Akira starts to look more worried.

  “Yes. We will hopefully have everything fixed within four days. But to do all this, in a month. This would take more than one single person. Even if the main person was tier 3.” She looks at all the readings. “They even modified my sensors and alarms. Normally I am notified as soon as things change. But they made it so that I got informed when things were about to reach the point of no return.”

  She tilts her head and scrunches her face in thought. Helo who has been by Yoeko this entire time can’t help but think she looks cute like that. He has been helping direct people and carve new runes, within his limits. Yoeko looks down and pulls up a list of all the modifications. “With all this. They could have blown up the mountain in two weeks.”

  “So. What you are saying is that they had no intention of blowing up the mountain.” Helo asks.

  The elders and higher tier people start to yell at Helo to keep his mouth shut while the adults are speaking, but Akira holds up his hand. “What was that, Helo?”

  “It sounds like they intentionally made an all-hands-on deck situation?” He isn’t sure if he is right. But to him it seems likely.

  “A distraction….” Akira mumbles. Everyone else hears him and they start to think one it. They have been focusing on fixing everything and stopping the eruption, that they never stopped to think everything over.

  Standing up from her seat between Akira and Helo, Yuki asks a question. “When was the first assumed sabotage attempt?” Her tone makes everyone think she is onto something.

  At this question two things happen at one. In the corner of the room a man wearing a guard uniform, but with a ‘Purity’ and ‘Blood’ tattoo underneath, sends out a quick text. All it says are is, “They know. No more time.”

  The second thing is that Yoeko looks at her logs. “Two months.”

  At this Yuki and Akira looks at one another. Akira says. “The rifts.” Then Akira starts moving faster than anyone under peak tier 2 can follow. Increasing his senses and spreading his aura he looks for anyone who is acting strange. Most of the people are staring at him or his wife, which send a small flash of annoyance through his mind.

  In the corner of the room, he finds a young man who is sliding his phone back into his pocket. Akira knew that this had to have been an inside job. But they couldn’t find anything concrete. Using his bloodline abilities, he reaches out with his aura and wraps the man in a physical illusion.

  Dragging the man to himself he plucks the phone from the mans struggling grip. Taking it out he easily bypasses the phones security with his admin abilities as the clan leader. Looking at the screen he reads it out loud. “They know. No more time.”

  “Every rift! Check and clear them all!” The room is standing is stunned silence from Akira’s quick aura sweep and grabbing the young man. “NOW!” He yells out. He knew that keeping that many rifts active would be a risk. But he never expected something like this. Now for the last few days, all eyes have been on fixing the array. Nobody has been guarding the rifts.

  The longer the rifts stay active the more powerful they become. He even has some tier 2 and 3 rifts that should have guards. Akira feels just the slighted tint of concern. If each rift was filled with mana to bursting, there could be tens of thousands of monsters flowing the mountain.

  They easily have the smallest number of clan members, there are only a few reasons that they have been safe, the main is because the unique mystical mana that is the staple of the Kashiwagi mixed bloodline. It is a mixture of dryad nature and kitsune spiritual/illusion.

  Most of his mixed bloodline family focuses on one aspect over the others, but they all learn at least a little about all three. This allows them to connect with the atmospheric mystic mana and treat the world around them like a weak domain.

  If the volcano erupts or even has a leak, the heat from the fire mana that is released will start to burn away the mystic mana. The best way to deal with the Fae is to burn them out. If they have to deal with a massive number of monsters, then they could be in trouble.

  The second reason that they are safe is because even if their numbers are lower, they have a higher average of tier 3 individuals. Plus, their tier 3’s tends to be stronger than average. The other reason won’t help them now. It is because of their relationship with the militaristic BrightMoon clan.

  But if this was perpetrated internally. This could be really bad.

  At first the mountain is peaceful. The high tier individuals are scrambling at their highest speeds to reach the tier 2 and 3 rifts. The first man to arrive lets out a sigh of relief. He is a tier 2 speed focused fighter with a wind affinity. “Ahaahh. Whew. All clear. There isn’t anyone here.”

  As he says that into his phone, another man drops in front of him. This man’s aura weighs down the area like you are being pressured by the canopy of a tree. He is a tall and has a powerful build “No… the energy is wrong.” The tall man says.

  Another tier 3 appears; this person has fox ears and her presence shifts to and fro. The tier 2 isn’t sure where the real her is. “Yes, I can feel death in the area. Daigo, your right. Where are the guards.” As she asks, she turns her beautiful face to look at the tier 2 man.

  “Th… the… there weren’t any.” He stammers out. Her aura is making him see shifting movements all around him.

  “Rescind your all clear. Something is wrong.” As she says that she steps forward with a swing of her hip. Patting her large friend on the shoulder she steps up to the rift. Before she can enter the rift’s mana starts to fluctuate wildly. “Oh no.” She says right before the rift explodes outward with mana.

  She gets sent backward through the nearby trees and the tear in reality start to open wide. Out from the rip a massive hulking figure appears. “HAHAAH FINNALLY I AM FREE TO FEAST!”

  “Th… that’s a troll…” The tier 2 says from his place on his knees. Trolls are a major problem for most fighters. Their regeneration at the peak of what is physical possible and their strength makes them hard to fight. As the troll steps free, behind it more start to appear. Not just trolls but also Warghounds. They are a type of high tier canine creature, known for tormenting their prey and being notoriously hard to control. “And a beast master…”

  The tier 3 opens his tablet and starts sending out override warnings to the entire mountain. He turns around to check if his friend is fine then gets back to his task. He even sent one out to the civilian authorities, to evacuate the surrounding area. “This is going to be a long day. Get up Ema” He slowly drawls out as all the trees in the area start to come alive.

  All around the mountain similar scenes are taking place. Rifts of all tier are breaking and monsters are starting to spill onto the mountain. All around the area fires are starting and you can hear the screams of innocents as they are attacked by the monsters.