Despite Kahayag's constant nag trying to dissuade him going to the Realm of Darkness just to save his grandma's soul, Elric's mind has already been set.

Sigh~

The sound of Kahayag, who has taken over grandma's body temporarily, sighing in regret. As much as she wanted to control the information that Elric receives about his grandma, things could have been under her control. But the b.a.s.t.a.r.d grandson had possessed an incredible soul potential that he became too overpowered to the point that he even used a memory scan on her!

Kahayag is a proud Spiritual. One must know, she is one of the few most powerful ascended Spirituals from the Realm of Light. She was confident that she has what it takes to take control of the young man but she had no idea how powerful he could become one's Natural Spiritual access has been unlocked.

What Kahayag did not realize is that Elric's incredible soul potential was actually because of the different challenges he had faced throughout his battles. His evolution to possess the Elemental Authorities had allowed him to finely control his internal emotions. Not to mention, he had also withstood the soul and body cleansing test brought by the Soul Cleansing Pearl he earned during his time in the water realm.

And lastly, his overflowing determination to save back his grandma's soul and finally see her as whole again is a chance he firmly believes was given to him to fix at least one of his greatest mistakes in the past.

Now that a chance to finally save and see his grandma has arrived, Elric feels like he was given another chance to bring a dead person back to life. He doesn't care what evil awaits to him at the Realm of Darkness. He knew, according to the World Knowledge, that it was a place never hospitable to mortal creatures especially a human-like him. 

His chances of survival are close to zero. But with grandma's soul on their end, Elric is more than willing to curve that zero into a possibility. Try as Kahayag would try, the young man before her had already made up his mind.

"Sigh.." She heaved as she turned around and left the room in her ethereal form. Her figure just blended into the wall like a cla.s.sic ghost while her mouth continued to murmur...

"Like grandpa like grandson. Stupidity runs through the genes..."

Elric laid down on the bed and watched the wooden ceiling as he started to device a plan for his invasion to the Realm of Darkness. He realized that with his current strength, he might not come back alive. And alive he must come back or else his efforts of bringing back grandma could only bring more misery for her.

It was not that Elric could not accept losing her. He just wanted to fix the mistake he had done in the past and since heaven has given him an option to do so, he was more than glad to bite the poisoned apple and see who gets to win at the end.

But the least he could do is to prepare himself and get stronger in the next few months.

Finding a way back to the Elemental realm and acquire the rest of the Elemental Authorities was not a plausible plan considering the different time ratios on their realm. He was just not confident enough to get the rest of the Authorities without spending much time. Who knows, by the time he came back, it would have been another ten years already on the human realm and he is not sure if his grandma's soul is still fine by then.

Not to mention that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d G.o.d of the Elemental Realm did not seem to welcome him as well. He still needs to find a way to overpower that man so that Elric would not be thrown to the Toray again and risk getting stuck on that place forever.

"I need to become stronger. This is not enough." Elric muttered as he raised watched his fingers curling into a powerful looking fist. "To ensure we come back alive in this realm, I must learn more about them."

Elric stood up from the bed. Left the room and went to Kahayag's location. With his extraordinary senses, finding an old woman in a two-story apartment was like a walk in the park.

In less than a minute, Elric is already standing at the front door that Kahayag stayed. Kahayag on the other side immediately noticed Elric's presence behind the door and waved her hand to open it telepathically. 

Elric went inside her room and appeared to be just another normal-looking room for an old lady. There are herbal plants and medicines cleanly organized in the sides, a wooden rocking chair by the window, a not so brightly let room and plenty of ancient-looking books with t.i.tles and contents written in Baybayin scriptures. Baybayin is an indigenous Indic script that has been widely used in traditional Tagalog domains even before the Spanish colonialization.

"I need to know more about the Realm of Darkness. What is the extent of their abilities, their movement, their leaders and their behaviors, everything else that I need to know." Elric went straight to the business. His eyes were filled with no hint of fear, it was all determination.

"I know you would come and ask me that. Sit down." Kahayag gestured to Elric as a wooden chair moved on its own and halted just behind Elric's thighs. Elric sat down and glanced back at the very familiar face of his grandma with Kahayag's spirit inside.

"Now, just to be clear. As a spiritual and your ancestor, I do not recommend you falling to the enemy Shadow's trap to lure you into their domain. But if you made up your mind and there is nothing I can do to stop you, then the best I can do for you is offer you pointers and some things that you must know. All at the best of my extend." Kahayag said sincerely.

"Thank you great-great-grandma. Do not worry. I- no, me and my grandma Beth will be coming back together. Intact and the same as before. I promise you that." Elric replied genuinely. 

Kahayag nodded in hopeful response. 

"Now, just so you know, the Realm of Darkness is opposite from the realm where I came from. Thus, the information I can share with you is quite limited. What I will tell you is based solely on my experiences and the things I have learned personally. The realm of the Darkness is unlike a regular realm you have gone so far. It has a bizarre environment that is set to test your logical thinking and may catch your surprise many times. It was dark and a depressing place..." Kahayag started sharing as Elric listened intently, absorbing every word she said like a sponge absorbing every drop of water.

The two of them spent the rest of the entire night talking about the Realm of Darkness while Elric would actively ask some question from time to time, grandma Kahayag answered them patiently and wisely.

***

THUD~

Long closed the door behind him and immediately started removing his school uniform. Lesse was already waiting at the sofa and had a disturbed expression in her elegant looking face.

"I heard from grandma, those b.a.s.t.a.r.d Arkhans finally made a move on you?" Lesse stood up with a serious gaze towards her little brother who is grown much taller than her.

"Yeah. But grandma took care of them." Long answered casually, not bothering at the tensed face of his sister.

"If only I had my Dragon essence, I could have dealt with them on my own. I just really hate it that we have to ask for help from somebody. " He added as he walked towards the water jar and gulped a mouthful of cold water.

"This is not us. We used to fly across the sea with our heads held high. But now, like rats, we are hiding like-"

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Lesse interrupted with a cold voice.

"Long, they attacked you! That only means our cover has been blown!" Lesse anxiously sat beside her brother. She looked incredibly stressed knowing that their long-kept secret is finally taken a scratch!

"So what? If they come to us, let's just go at them. Unleash my seal and I will face them all together. I'd rather die fighting for the name of our clan rather than dying like a rat biting their knives."

"Do you want to die that soon? Don't you have respect to father's wish and sacrifice?" Lesse argued.

Turning around to face his sister, Long slammed that table beside him and broke it into two!

SLAM!~

CRACK~

"What sacrifice!? This all started because you neglected and hesitated over your duty to kill off that rat human!" 

"That human was fated by the Ancestral Dragon!" Lesse beckoned back.

"And who's going to believe that!? Explain that to the thousands dead Eastern Dragons and those who are being enslaved in the stupid human black market!"

"You..."

Lesse was unable to retort back. No matter how many times she explained, not even the elders believed in her explanation. Everything happened too quick but her mind was sane during those times. Try as might she does want to kill that human despite him helping her. It was to kill of any evidence about the existence of the Dragons and also for looking at her while being naked.

She was a proud royal Dragon princess of the Eastern Region and her weakness was laid bare before a four-eyed skinny average human. Not to mention, he even has the guts to proudly say he saved her! She, a royal dragon with power as strong as an Elder was being saved by a geeky human from two pathetically weak demonic elementals!

It was like an ant trying to left an Elephant! Stupid and pathetic! One move from her, she could have squashed the three of them into dust! They were just lucky she was at the weakest stage after her tribulation at that time.

Both Lesse and Long had an intense desire to kill off the Elric they knew from the past. Not realizing he was just a few doors away from them and has the power to flick the elephants into dust.