Chapter 308: An Ordinary Day for Extraordinary Beings

Abel hovered with his hands clasped behind his back, carefully inspecting the fully assembled tail section.

He mentally took stock of the work that remained. A huge portion of the frame was already complete, but there was still half the neck to build, the highly complex head module with its navigation units, and the massive wings, which would require precise geometric adjustments.

Abel let out a heavy sigh, rubbed his chin, and thought to himself:

All right... where should I start now?

After a brief pause, he rolled up his sleeves and confidently flew toward the dragon's neck.

Meanwhile, Arthur opened the front door, went into the kitchen, and checked the pots on the stove. Finding them completely empty, he let out a heavy sigh, shook his head, and started taking out the ingredients.

At that very moment, the front door creaked open again, and Kai dragged himself into the entryway. He could barely lift his feet, not even bothering to close the door behind him. Once he reached the living room, Kai practically collapsed into a chair at the dining table, dropping his head straight onto the wooden tabletop and burying it in his arms.

A couple of seconds later, he managed to force out a quiet, utterly despairing whisper:

"I'm hopeless..."

Without turning away from the stove, Arthur continued sprinkling spices into the boiling water and replied flatly:

"Yeah. You really are hopeless."

At those words, Kai slumped even further, letting out a miserable groan.

Arthur stirred the contents of the pot with a spoon, glanced out the window at the empty yard, and quietly asked:

"When was the last time you went on a mission?"

Without lifting his head from the table, Kai mumbled:

"About a month ago... Why?"

"Did you use magic on that mission? Or just your sword?"

"Of course I used magic," Kai muttered tiredly.

Arthur immediately stopped stirring and turned his head to look at Kai:

"And you're still complaining after that?"

Kai lifted his head, blinking in confusion:

"Whaaat?"

"You have to use your head... If you want to make any real progress, you need an opponent who's actually trying to kill you," Arthur said calmly, turning back to his cooking.

"And what about you?" Kai protested, suddenly straightening up in his chair.

"What about me? Obviously, I hold back so I don't accidentally injure you."

Kai burst out laughing, leaning back in his chair.

"Hahahaha... Are you serious? You actually think you could kill me?"

Arthur let out a heavy sigh and calmly replied:

"Of course not. But fighting you at full strength when you're limiting yourself to swordsmanship alone wouldn't be fair. Besides, you can't even handle my base form. What are we even talking about?"

Kai jerked with anger, glaring furiously at Arthur.

"Well, we'll see about that..."

Arthur ignored him, focusing on the pot. Kai, meanwhile, frowned and fell silent, staring ahead again. The recent sparring matches began replaying in his mind as he worked out new movement patterns and tried to find weaknesses in his own technique.

About forty minutes had passed. The finished dish was sizzling away on the stove, filling the spacious kitchen with an appetizing aroma.

By now, Kai had completely worn himself out mentally going over different combat stances. He had spent the last few minutes stretched out across several chairs, his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes closed, trying to relieve the tension.

Arthur turned off the stove, glanced over the finished meal, and called over his shoulder:

"All right, it's ready. Go get Seraphina, Nivea, and the others."

Kai quickly got up from the chairs and gave a brief reply:

"Okay."

In the very next instant, he vanished, only to reappear inside Nivea's pocket dimension. The entire right half was covered in greenery, soft grass, and sprawling trees, where Elyria was meditating. The left half, meanwhile, was buried beneath a thick layer of snow, a frozen kingdom of ice and towering floes, with Nivea levitating right in the middle of it.

As soon as he appeared, Kai wordlessly rose into the air, assuming the exact same meditative position as Nivea, then slowly and silently glided upward until he was level with her.

He hovered beside her for a couple of seconds, matching her breathing exactly, before slightly opening one eye. Nivea didn't move an inch. Her expression remained completely serene.

Feeling ignored, Kai shifted slightly in the air and quietly called out:

"Hey, Nivea..."

The moment the sound left his lips, a massive, sharpened ice spike suddenly formed out of thin air in front of him with a sharp crack. Before Kai could even blink, the deadly projectile shot forward with a whistle, heading straight for his stomach.

Kai sharply twisted in midair, dodging it and appearing behind Nivea in the blink of an eye.

"Food's ready! Let's go!" he announced cheerfully.

Nivea didn't turn around. In a cold, even voice, she replied:

"Five minutes."

"Nope, we don't have five minutes! We're going right now!" Kai insisted.

A storm immediately erupted around Nivea. Hundreds of sharp ice needles and spikes filled the air around her, cutting off every possible escape route for Kai. A wave of cold swept through the entire dimension.

Realizing there was no point arguing, Kai vanished and reappeared a second later at the very top of the tallest tower in the dimension. Looking down at Nivea, now surrounded by a cocoon of ice, and the spikes rising toward him, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted:

"I'm giving you five minutes, and that's it!"

After that, he cast a quick glance at Elyria, who had been meditating the entire time, before finally disappearing into thin air.

The space flickered briefly again, and Kai materialized in a wide, perfectly flat forest clearing.

The next moment, the air above him was cut by the whistle of incoming projectiles. Kai shifted to the side, narrowly dodging them just in time. Sharp spikes made of pure, condensed blood struck the ground where he had been standing moments earlier with a dull thud.

A brutal battle was unfolding in the center of the clearing. Dozens of crimson spikes and blades swirled around Seraphina as she unleashed one attack after another against Noah.

Noah moved with incredible speed, dodging the deadly attacks while channeling all his blood into his right hand. With a sharp motion, he delivered a vertical counter-slash. The air trembled as several of Seraphina's blood spikes shattered into splashes, which immediately evaporated into a fine mist.

But the remaining droplets, scattered across the grass and through the air, quickly gathered into new streams, twisting into spirals before rushing toward Noah once again. At the same moment, Seraphina launched herself forward, materializing a long crimson sword made of densely packed blood in her hand. She closed the distance and engaged Noah in fierce close-quarters combat. Their blades clashed with a sharp clang.

Watching the fight drag on, Kai let out a tired sigh, raised his hands, and brought his palms together with a sharp clap.

A dense wave of pure, bright yellow mana instantly burst from his palms in all directions. The energy rapidly expanded, forming a gigantic hemispherical dome that completely covered the clearing.

The moment this energy barrier reached Seraphina's crimson spikes, they stopped dead in their tracks, as if they had hit an invisible wall. The wave continued outward, engulfing both Seraphina and Noah.

In the very same instant, they froze mid-motion. Their raised swords and blood droplets suspended in the air, completely unable to move even a millimeter.

Silence fell over the clearing.

Noah's eyes darted in every direction. Glancing to his left, he spotted Kai slowly approaching them.

"Yo. Looks like you two are having fun here," Kai remarked calmly.

He tilted his head to the side and added:

"But Arthur's already got the food ready, so you'll have to put your activities on hold for a minute."

Noah tried furiously to say something, but the field had completely locked his lips and jaw in place.

Ignoring their irritated glares, Kai snapped his fingers.

The yellow dome began rapidly contracting back toward him. As the energy barrier moved inward, it completely annihilated all of Seraphina's blood magic. The crimson spikes, her raised sword, and the remaining traces of her spells simply vanished as soon as they touched the edge of the sphere.

As the dome's boundary passed through Noah and Seraphina themselves, the paralysis wore off. However, the momentum caused them both to lose their balance and tumble heavily forward onto the grass.

The dome was completely absorbed into Kai's palm and disappeared in the same instant.

Noah immediately pushed himself back to his feet, supporting himself with one hand, and shot Kai an irritated glare.

"What the hell did you interrupt us for?!"

"Told you, it's time to eat," Kai replied, pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

Noah immediately shot back coldly:

"Don't want to."

Kai raised the index finger of his right hand.

"I..."

Then he raised a second finger.

"...Nivea."

Next, he pointed at Seraphina.

"Seraphina..."

He continued counting off the others on his fingers.

"Arsher, Abel, and probably Elyria. None of us actually need food. But Council rules require us all to gather around the same table and eat together. Got it?"

"Stupid rules," Noah grumbled.

Ignoring him, Kai snapped his fingers, and everyone instantly vanished from the clearing. For another couple of seconds, Kai's voice echoed through the air:

"Yeah, I didn't get it at first either..."

Space warped, and everyone appeared at once right beside the table.

Arthur was already busy setting out plates of steaming food, skillfully arranging them across the table. Kai, barely catching his breath, immediately turned around, intending to head back toward the door to get the others.

But in the very next instant, an icy chill ran through his body. Goosebumps prickled across his back, and a sharp, shaky breath caught in his throat.

Stammering and swallowing hard, Kai jerkily turned around, his eyes fixed in pure panic on Seraphina, who was radiating an unbelievably terrifying, murderous aura. His knees practically buckled under its pressure.

Seraphina stared at him with a cold, heavy gaze, making no attempt to hide her desire to kill him on the spot. She said with icy calm:

"Show my Lord that kind of disrespect one more time... and you'll regret it."

The moment she finished speaking, her aura vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared. Not a trace of anger remained on her face. She immediately hurried over to Noah, who was just sitting down. She pulled her own chair right up beside his, sitting so close that their shoulders were practically touching.

Trying not to draw any attention to himself, Kai slowly backed away toward the stairs, went up to the second floor, and then continued on to the third.

Slowing his pace as he walked down the long corridor, Kai quietly wiped away the remaining sweat, muttering to himself:

"Well... I guess I went a little too far..."

He stopped right in front of one of the doors and was just about to raise his hand to open it when his entire body suddenly locked up.

His muscles seized, his mana was blocked, and he couldn't move even a finger, no matter how desperately he tried to force his body to move.

The next moment, Arsher silently materialized beside him.

Kai was just about to shout something when Arsher quietly said:

"Keep your voice down."

Kai immediately stopped himself and reluctantly spoke in barely a whisper:

"The food... is ready. Time to eat."

Arsher nodded.

"All right. We'll be there in two minutes."

Arsher immediately disappeared, teleporting back into the room. The paralysis wore off, and Kai staggered slightly forward from the momentum, letting out a breath.

Kai snapped his fingers once again and disappeared.

As he materialized inside Abel's pocket dimension, Kai looked around.

Without giving it much thought, he jumped up and landed on the dragon's massive body with a running start. Making his way across its metallic back, he confidently walked along its unfinished neck and stopped a few steps away from Abel.

"All right, Abel!" Kai shouted, trying to get his attention. "Food's ready!"

Abel, completely absorbed in soldering the microchips, didn't seem to hear him.

Kai sighed and repeated himself, a little louder this time:

"I'm telling you, the food's already getting cold! Come on!"

Abel ignored him again, continuing to adjust the power conduits. Kai's eye twitched at his stubbornness. He let out a loud breath and clenched his fist so tightly that a dense, blindingly bright yellow flash of pure mana immediately swirled around it. The energy began to hum as it condensed into a powerful charge, ready to come crashing down on the dragon's metallic neck.

At that very moment, Abel lazily raised his head. His cold, piercing gaze settled on Kai's raised fist.

In a calm, even voice, Abel asked:

"What exactly are you doing?"

Kai immediately dispersed the mana, unclenched his fist, and broke into a wide grin.

"Oh, you finally heard me! I've told you for the hundredth time already that the food's ready! So come on, let's go."

Abel glanced over the nearly completed neck assembly and said:

"One minute."

Kai immediately nodded while Abel made a few quick final movements with his tool, tightening the fastening bolts.

Meanwhile, Kai looked around, fascinated by the tools floating in the air. At one point, he flew over to one of them and gave it a slight push, watching as it drifted away from him. Then he simply grabbed it and started turning it over in his hands.

A minute later, Abel finished the last few adjustments and lowered his pliers. They remained obediently suspended in the air.

"All right, let's go," Abel said with a sigh.

Kai, who was already lying on the grass, was just about to teleport them straight to the table when Abel interrupted him:

"But take me to the laboratory first. Then we can go to the table."

Kai nodded, snapped his fingers, and the two of them appeared inside Abel's cool, quiet laboratory.

Kai remained standing in the middle of the room, looking over the shelves filled with various components, while Abel quickly approached the main terminal. With a smooth upward swipe of his finger across the touch panel, he brought up a holographic display filled with system logs and graphs for the current day.

Quickly scrolling through the reports, Abel studied the data with a frown until his eyes caught on one of the slides. The hologram clearly showed the silhouettes of three unknown creatures in an area marked "Dead Lands (Cemetery)."

Abel rotated his wrist, causing the special biometric module on his arm to click quietly. The holographic slide smoothly retracted into the control device and was saved in the system's memory.

After scanning the remaining reports and making sure there was nothing else useful, Abel swiped the hologram downward, dismissing the display.

"All right, that's it," he said, turning toward Kai. "Let's go."

With one final snap of his fingers, the two materialized right behind the long dining table.

Almost everyone had already gathered. Abel calmly took his seat, while Kai immediately dropped into the chair beside him.

Abel glanced over the table and nodded toward Arthur.

"Good job, Arthur."

Looking ahead and noticing that not everyone had arrived yet, Abel immediately asked:

"Where's everyone else?"

"They'll be here in a moment," Kai replied dismissively.

At that very moment, the space above two empty chairs warped. Nivea and Elyria silently materialized right in midair.

Elyria immediately broke into an excited smile as she looked over the appetizing dishes.

"Whoa! Wow! Everything looks amazing!"

Without wasting any time, she grabbed her utensils and immediately started eating. Nivea quietly and carefully picked up her spoon before calmly beginning her meal.

Just a couple of seconds later, the air beside Abel shifted, and Arsher materialized in his chair without making a sound. At the same time, Iron appeared beside Elyria and Noah.

Elyria immediately glanced at him and blinked in surprise.

"Oh, Iron! Where have you been all this time?"

Iron let out a heavy sigh, shooting her a gloomy look before muttering through clenched teeth:

"Better you don't know."

Abel looked around at everyone, clapped his hands in satisfaction, and said:

"Well then... enjoy your meal, everyone!"

The table soon filled with the clinking of utensils and quiet conversation.