Being in Zalpa's cave gave the group the chance to have a proper party and face the losses that the crisis had caused. Khan and Liiza eventually joined the event, but they remained among their friends only for a short time before returning inside their room.
Zalpa's mood was awful, but she distracted herself by preparing smelly potions meant to make the journey toward the safe location easier. She even let Doku handle the second cauldron so that the others would never lack drinks.
The cave didn't have many cups, but the students made sure to pass them so that everyone could drink. The envoys joined them without hesitation, and they even helped the few other humans in the cave with that tradition.
The humans deployed on Nitis had suffered incredible losses during the crisis and Zura's betrayal. More than forty recruits had occupied the two camps before the arrival of the sunlight, but less than ten of them had remained now. One of the squad leaders had also died.
Rodney's position was unclear since the higher-ups of the Niqols had to take care of delivering him to the humans, but no one bothered to think about him. The crisis had taken so much from the group that everyone eventually got drunk..
Khan and Liiza finally had the chance to spend some meaningful time together, which allowed him to help her take care of her grief. He couldn't do anything spectacular, but being there for her ended up being enough to improve her mood.
Liiza found it hard to control herself after she overcame her grief, but she didn't even bother to try to suppress her raging emotions. Zalpa had granted privacy to the couple, and she didn't dare to waste it. She and Khan basically spent the entire day of her birthday in their room, with him leaving only to grab food and drinks.
Many gazes fell on Khan whenever he took those short strolls outside the room. The squad leaders wanted to question him about his power, while his friends wished that he could join the celebration. Yet, he only had Liiza in mind that day, so he limited himself to short salutes before returning into his girlfriend's arms.
Zalpa had to muster the entirety of her self-control to enter the room and have the conversation about the old ways. She made sure to visit the couple during the night of the second day after making sure that they weren't up to anything naughty.
"[What a damned brat you are]," Zalpa cursed when she entered the room and saw the couple's state.
Khan and Liiza were naked, but they were using their torn and dirty robes to cover themselves. Liiza was sitting on Khan's lap, with her half-sleeping face laid on his bare shoulder. Instead, Khan was caressing her hair while his free hand adjusted the clothes used as a blanket and her legs under it.
Zalpa didn't miss the evident blush on Liiza's face, and the scene left her conflicted. Except for Khan's ability to satisfy Liiza, Zalpa noticed that she was feeling better after spending that long time with him. Yet, Zalpa didn't like seeing her so used to being in Khan's arms. Part of her motherly instincts still viewed Liiza as a kid.
"[Zaza, thank you for this]," Liiza whispered while caressing Khan's right leg with her feet.
Zalpa could see Liiza's actions even if the robes covered her, but she couldn't feel angry at that time. She actually revealed a faint smile in front of Liiza's peaceful voice.
Khan's protective stance toward Liiza also reassured Zalpa. He never failed to adjust her to make her comfortable and warm. The old Niqols had to admit that she had never seen such a perfect couple before, but she didn't dare to voice those thoughts.
Zalpa didn't remain in the room for a long time. She limited herself to hear Liiza and Khan's descriptions of the [Blood Vortex] and [Blood Shield] before adding a few simple explanations.
It turned out that Yeza had given Khan the complete techniques. They didn't lack anything, so Zalpa could only add some advice. She knew the old ways better than the current ruling generation of Niqols, and the couple committed to memory her words.
Zalpa let Khan and Liiza be after that short interaction, and the couple spent the rest of the night together. They came out of the cave early in the morning of the next day, with Liiza still wearing her evident blush.
Zalpa didn't give specific orders, but everyone had understood that they had to wake up early that day. The group found the old Niqols already up, and she quickly forced them to sit so that she could apply her potions.
Zalpa applied a few lines of dense and smelly dark ink on everyone's faces. Then, she poured a few drops of another smelly liquid on their heads before moving to other potions.
The squad leaders didn't like that treatment, but they didn't oppose it. They could sense that Zalpa was far stronger than them, and the effectiveness of her potions was undeniable. The skin on Paul's forearm had completely regrown, and the same went for the injuries of the others.
Only Kelly would need proper surgery once she regained access to human technology. Zalpa's potion had closed her injury, but it didn't regrow the missing piece of her hand. She had lost her thumb and forefinger, and only a prosthesis could fix that.
The group left the cave after Zalpa completed her preparations. The forest reappeared in their view, but the old Niqols made everyone run among the large trees and long roots. She never bothered to check the path ahead, and she was so nimble that those behind her struggled to keep up with her speed.
An explanation arrived after the group ran for an entire day and saw the trees around them getting scarce. Zalpa needed to stop to check the map, so Liiza had the chance to question her about her recklessness. Many believed that she was simply confident in her abilities, but the answer revealed a far different truth.
"[What do you think the potions are for]?" Zalpa responded. "[I made all of you invisible to many species of monsters. We can rush our way toward the safe area like this]."
No one asked questions anymore after that explanation. Zalpa pushed the students and humans to their physical limits to reduce the amount of time spent in the wild, but she didn't forget to take care of their exhaustion.
Zalpa dug multiple holes in the ground and reinforced them with red symbols drawn with her blood every time the group took a break. She used those pits as simple cauldrons meant to prepare fuming potions that had different effects.
Some trails of smoke kept the monsters away and hid the group's presence. Others quickened everyone's recovery, while a few cauldrons simply contained nutrient drinks meant to bring students and Niqols back to their peak.
The breaks never lasted more than a few hours due to how incredible Zalpa's methods were. She spent half an hour creating the holes and concocting the potions, and the group used the rest of that time recovering. As for Zalpa, she rarely ate or drank. She never appeared tired during the journey.
A plain full of bushes and short grass followed the forest, but trees reappeared after the group traveled for two more days. Zalpa's potions allowed everyone to skip sleep without enduring any drawback, so the group managed to cross long distances in far less time.
A forest that featured tall trees with thick and wide crowns made of large black leaves followed the plain. Many monsters occupied that environment, but Zalpa changed direction whenever she sensed something with her incredible sensitivity to mana. Her potion could make them invisible, but she still had to avoid meeting the packs.
Crossing the second forest took a bit more than expected due to its crowded environment. Still, the group eventually reached a solitary mountain that grew right among that thick array of trees. Zalpa led everyone on the other side of that rocky structure, and a waterfall connected to a lake eventually became visible.
Zalpa began to use red symbols on her arms as she moved along the shores of the lake. The group had to swim for a bit and cross a narrow path to reach the areas hidden by the waterfall, but they only found a rocky wall there.
"[Take a step back]," Zalpa announced as she approached the wall filled with dark-grey moss.
No one dared to ignore her order, but everyone paid close attention to her actions. Zalpa approached the moss and drew sharp lines on its wet structure. She didn't use her blood at that time, but azure symbols lit up anyway after she activated a few of them.
The symbols there were quite intricate, so Zalpa took a while to activate all of them. However, the wall started to tremble after she completed the process. Boulders covered with moss fell from higher parts of the mountains as the rocks in front of her began to open to create a tall passage.
The boulders always fell into the lake, but the group on the narrow path inevitably moved their attention above them to make sure that nothing tried to hit them. Meanwhile, the tall passage began to open and revealed that the mountain's insides were mostly empty.
"[Let's move]!" Zalpa ordered once the rocky wall stopped moving.
The group couldn't see much from the narrow passage, but everything became clear once they stepped on the small spot where Zalpa had activated the symbols. The mountain's insides unfolded in their vision, and a faint azure light allowed them to recognize most details.
The insides of the mountain weren't actually empty. The Niqols had dug an immense part of the structure away but had left a tall palace at the end of that enormous cavity.
The building was similar to the structure where Khan and the other envoys had met Yeza, but it featured an evident lack of aesthetic details. It had a dark and smooth surface, but its windows were small and uneven. Its roofs also fused with the rocky walls of the mountain and made the palace part of the structure.
The palace was a structure meant for war times. It didn't have any political purpose, but the group didn't care about that. They felt ecstatic to see a new home that didn't involve the dangers of the wild.
Azure symbols filled the entirety of the enormous cavity and immersed the area in a pale radiance. That glow allowed the group to see some familiar figures standing on the rare balconies of the palace. Captain Erbair, Yeza, and the other higher-ups from both species waved at Zalpa and their underlings when they saw them moving toward the safe structure.
