Kana didn't spend much time in the mansion. Creige had set up a teleport to his weapon shop. So after a single day of exploring the massive mansion, she was now locked in her new forge, hammering away at a hunk of metal. With much care of precision, she was testing out the techniques she learned in her mind. Surprisingly enough, they were actually working just like how she remembered it. Without needing to use the forge to keep the metal ore heated, Kana was able to rid the ore of more impurities, making it purer than anything she had created before by using her fire.
The only difference she noticed was the ore she was currently hammering on, and the crappy iron ore she was using in her mind were on two different spectrums when it came to quality. Iron ore was delicate when hammering it, causing her to be extra careful. But this ore in her hand now was much more durable, enabling her to use almost fifty percent of her strength while hammering. The whole shop shook with each swing of her hammer.
Creige was out in the front of the shop, making sure the place was clean. He had cleared off an entire wall for Kana so she could put her creations up for sale. This had been Kana's life for the past week. It was nothing more than forging, eating, and sleeping. But on this day, Baldswin came running into the shop yelling Creige's name: "Creige! Bad news!"
"Hmm? What's the matter?" Creige, who was behind the counter sorting a few things, poked his head up and asked.
"They have appeared again..." Baldswin's face was pale. His whole body was shaking. He was definitely frightened by whatever this 'they' were.
Hearing this, Creige's brow furrowed. "They showed up again? I thought we had a truce with them."
"I do not know what happened, but it seems one of their princesses came to our territory in secret, and some bandits had grabbed her. When they found her, she was already..." Baldswin couldn't even finish his words.
"What did the king say?" Creige suddenly became serious.
The 'they' they were talking about was actually an ancient race. They stayed away from worldly things and did not get involved in any conflicts. What was worse was just how powerful they were. Stone Hammer was like a guard keeping any other race from entering their territory. The dwarves had entered a pact with this race in order to gain a portion of the surrounding mountain range. In exchange for keeping people away from their territory, the dwarves could mine and live in the mountains within their territory, which is how Stone Hammer came to be.
This race in question was a race of desolate beasts. These beasts differed from the normal beasts. They lived in a time when the gods still roamed the land. But they stayed living in seclusion and never left their territory. However, occasions like this would happen when a few would wander here and there. But once notified of such a thing and found they would be sent back, and everything was kept hush hush. This race alone was much more powerful than those old men who lived in the land of ancients, Pleqoth. They were just as powerful or more so than the gods and goddesses of their time, and they were an undying race. Desolate beasts had two forms: their beast form and their human forms. And they could easily switch between the two from birth.
While they came in all sizes, the ones who have lived since ages past are considered living deities. They can destroy the world with a simple flick of their fingers. Just by reaching with their hands and grasping the air in front of them, they could easily rip a hole to the realm of gods with little effort. You could say they were strong enough to descend to the plane above the realm of gods.
Because they do not have a system, they are not bound by the rules of this world. They gained their strength by doing what is called cultivating. They suck in the mana in the air and use it to reforge their bodies and hold a pool of mana within a space called a dantian. This was something only their race was able to do and was hereditary. But they had one issue with their race. It was very hard for them to conceive children, so every child was treated like a treasure. So the news of one of their princesses being kidnapped and ending up with such a bad end was not good news for Stone Hammer or the world itself.
"There has been no word yet from the King. Creige, what do we do? Even if we get the realm of gods involved, it is not clear if we can do anything about this. We might all be wiped out..." Baldswin broke out into a cold sweat just thinking about this.
"Let me think on this..."
---
"If I knew you were the one back then, I would not have let you go..." A woman in red said. She was floating high above Xeneria, looking down at a certain mountain. "Luckily, there are remnants of the desolate race here. I am sure they will be able to take care of you for me."
The woman in red sat down and got ready to watch the show. Next to her, a figure appeared. She looked no more than ten years of age and had three horns sticking out on top of her head. "Shamile, you are overstepping your bounds. If he knows you came here..."
"Yaya, do you really think I can let her go? Do you think I can let her return? Look at her right now. She is having children with a dirty demon. She is a far cry from her previous self. If I let her grow too strong and she ends up returning, where will that leave me? It took a lot for me to kill her, and as soon as I was about to destroy her soul, he had to intervene! Why!? What does he see in her!? Why couldn't he choose me!?" Shamile yelled in a jealous rage.
Yaya looked at the woman in red with a complicated gaze. "I will not help you in this..." Yaya left these words and disappeared.