"Yeah, I ran out of the ice we got together last time. W-would you be able to escort me into the cave?"

Alice was nervous at the moment, but it wasn't about going into the cave. She was more in need of Kirim's help because of her physical strength. What was making Alice nervous was that she had to scale a new staircase Kirim was building on top of where the demon tree had once been. The staircase didn't have any rails, and she was very conscious of the height. The staircase already reached higher than any building in the village. It was frightening to her that Kirim was suddenly building something tall where the demon tree had towered over the village before, using the wood harvested from the tree. She wanted to get Kirim away from the area for a while, just in case it was compelling her to do something she didn't really want to do.

"Sure! Let me just block this off so nobody walks up the staircase here. It would be dangerous if someone without magic were to fall off."

Alice sighed in relief. If she thought about it logically, she had no real reason to be afraid of the height. She was able to use magic to float herself off of the ground, so stopping herself from falling dangerously to the ground would be no issue. Her fear of heights had clung to her as tightly as possible however. Irrationality took over when rationally she knew she didn't have a real reason for the fear anymore.

Kirim conjured walls of stone from the ground to block off the staircase and nodded in satisfaction.

"That should be safe, let's go."

Alice didn't think anyone but Eugeo, Selka and Kirii could get to the staircase through that, the wall too smooth to scale and nobody but them would be curious enough to check it out. It was definitely safer. She was worried about Selka but she also knew Selka was skilled enough with magic to perform just as well, if not better.

Selka had become a bit of a teachers' pet to Kirim, always asking questions about magic when she had the chance to learn more, when the thought of something new to ask. Kirim was almost always willing to give the answer. Kirim honestly seemed pleased to have someone that genuinely curious learning from her. Alice wanted to be more inquisitive to earn that kind of expression, but it wouldn't be genuine. She wanted to truly earn it through her efforts and secondhand learning through Selka's lessons.

The two of them walked casually to the cave, through the town and enjoyed the walk. Kirim fit in like she had always lived there recently. Alice had heard that Kirim and Kirii were going to the dark lands every night, so she wondered if she would be able to see what the dark lands was like during the trip for ice. It wasn't the main intent, but giving her another chance to go there might be appealing to Kirim, for whatever reason she was going there.

"Why are you building that staircase where the demon tree was?"

Alice's question was genuine, since her curiosity got the better of her. She thought maybe, just maybe she could let herself become more naturally inquisitive like Selka if she let her curiosity get the better of her more. Not always, but more often slowly until she was secure in being able to ask questions all the time.

"I'm going to make a watch tower. It's so that the village can have a guard watch the cave and the border wall. Of course I'm planning to make it as safe as possible, but a watch tower can only be so safe. There's a few around my home settlement, so I figure Rulid could use the same idea of watching the surrounding area from above and see things others on the ground wouldn't be able to until they were close."

"Like in the farm fields? Or the forest or hills? That really does sound helpful."

"Exactly."

Kirim was smiling brightly. She liked being asked questions. Alice was happy to see the smile on her face.

"How has your family been? I've been seeing less and less of Rithi of late..."

Kirim nodded and sighed.

"My family is doing well. I do wish they were a little more concerned with me, but they have so much faith in my adaptability, that I could survive a dozen integrity knights attacking me at once in their minds. Truthfully, I've struggled and ran away every time I've encountered one before coming here. I was ready to faint when that one told me I committed a death worthy taboo..."

Alice regretted her curiosity a little because the mood turned sour, but the sourness went away quickly.

"You've certainly been using a lot of ice though. I thought Kirii and Eugeo were helping you with that now to train their physical strength, but it's welcome that you're inviting me. Left to my own devices until you all grow strong enough to travel is wearing on my patience a little, but honestly I'm enjoying seeing you all grow as mages and fighters."

She sighed.

"Right...we're growing in ways I never thought we would."

Kirim nodded. They were finding the trip through the cave shorter and shorter with walking already. Either their pace had quickened, their stride had grown, their legs were longer or a small combination of all those factors were making their walking speed faster. They reached the mid-point chamber and the appearance was much different than they had first encountered it. The integrity knight and their dragon's bodies were propped up and frozen into a large wall of ice as a memorial to them, a small stone monument set in front of it with a raised text honour to the knight and dragon and their prized weapon held by Rulid, the blue rose sword. There was a thick glass to keep the cold in so that the ice wouldn't need to be maintained in the hollow made for the display. There was another chamber with a metallic mineral door sealing off the new ice room. Kirim had Eugeo make more ice for the room every day, but it was slow for him to generate it because he wasn't strong enough to bring out the strength of the sword. It didn't recognize him yet. He was generating ice mostly through use of magic and that was also slow because his ability with magic was lacklustre as a boy. Kirim was contributing a little to the generation of the ice, but it was only a bit.

"It's so interesting how you changed this area. It's somehow like a building underground now, smooth, organized and honestly beautiful. And the ice being obtainable like this makes it so anyone from the village could come get some. You even put up a door so the rest of the village couldn't cross to the dark lands and so the dark lands couldn't come here."

Kirim scratched her cheek a little in embarrassment.

"The door would be easily breached by other blood elves or a coven of the dark land mages, and the dragon knights could easily fly over, so at least we're secure in knowing pugilists, goblins, orcs and ogres can't come through. It's a fully physical resistant barrier on that side which counters physical attacks with triple the amount of strength they put into their attack. A physical fighter's worst enemy."

The very thought of a meathead pugilist punching it with all their might made her flinch when she conjured the door. All that power reflecting three times stronger and turning the attacking arm, even most of the body to blood, bone powder and mush. It was honestly disgusting. She learned that as a future emergency use spell. It was something that made her sick just enchanting the door. Adding that much power to it was something that would make anyone sick. One border that might as well be a miniature version of the border walls separating the dark and light lands everyone knew of. All it needed was magic resistance and reflection, and for her to develop a key, and it would be equal.

"This thing is a lot of trouble. I've been putting a lot of energy into it every night for weeks so it could be as strong as it is. There is a benefit to it though. I recuperate my magic after spending so much. The more magic you use, bringing you to exhaustion, the more your capacity grows. At least as far as blood elves go. I've noticed it working on you and Selka, but it might not be as effective on Kirii and Eugeo."

"Incredible...it does make me curious though. What is the dark lands like? Is the sky really always dark like you said? Is there really so little agriculture? Are most of the people there really so aggressive?"

Alice's curiosity being let out felt so nice.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to show you the dark lands for a moment. But don't step over the edge into the dark lands. You need to be careful since your sacred task wasn't changed enough to let you go into the dark lands. You can see the other side from inside of the cave regardless. Just don't let your feet make contact with the red sand."

She nodded and Kirim led the way, generating a magic circle to unlock the door so they could be let through. The other side had a horrifying revelation. A familiar pugilist face, an unfamiliar faced corpse behind him and an unfamiliar mage.

"Your work...I'm disappointed but also excited. That I get to fight you seriously so soon, and you've already grown so strong. I'm disappointed you're with light landers though. That mistake will have to be corrected now. Your strength developed in the light lands killed a dear friend."

He was the pugilist mentor. And the dead person behind him was another travelling pugilist pupil. The golden hair and tan skin, along with being a younger age around hers gave it away. She was sad that her door with so much investment had hurt someone she hadn't expected to be effected.

"Can we talk before fighting first? Or is the anger too much still?"

The mentor replied with a tired tone.

"I've been angry for hours now, so I guess some talk won't hurt. I need to get fully fired up again. Talk will help me get fired up, depending on your words."

Kirim nodded and looked back to Alice who wore an expression both confused and fearful of the situation.

"Can we let her go back to her side of the door?"

The mentor shook his head.

"No, I'm not letting you off with that since she gives the impression to be a student of yours. An exchange of students just seems fair."

Kirim sighed and closed the door, leaving the option for the enemy to invade the other side unfeasible. The mage would be able, but she was preparing to take down the mage while talking, using her mind to plant mage detecting traps under her feet meant for a dark lander. That way her and Alice were safe, but only so long as the mage didn't suddenly attack while Alice didn't have much time or reflex to move out of the way.

"Well, it has been a while. How were your travels after you parted from my settlement?"

He showed an expression of fondness for the memories triggered by the mention.

"You really were my best student, the fastest. I always thought you would be dangerous, and fun to fight in the future. Not so soon though. My travels since were a little boring but this child who died to your door was the very next student. He was rash, slow to learn, and was too quick to make reckless moves. Your door for example. He saw something that was strong and wanted to punch it, as we pugilists usually are raised to be. It cost him his entire arm, all the way up to near his heart."

"You've been standing here for hours with a mage and didn't think to have the mage seal the wound? You could have stopped the bleeding and saved him..."

He grumbled.

"I had asked that but it was too late."

Kirim thought about another way to fight the current situation with words. It seemed that it wasn't the fault of her door, but the lack of self control of the student pugilist.

"As much as I might have blame for this, in making the door, it's to protect my students on the light lands side. I made it to protect from reckless, dangerous physical fighters getting through. I was planning on adding magical resistance next. Your mage companion really seems to be the issue here, not thinking to aid the student right away, along with your fault for not restraining him. You're skilled enough to spot an enchanted trap. I don't see where this is my fault at all."

The mentor groaned and slumped over in defeat.

"Right...right...this is my fault entirely. For hiring an outcast mage with no talent and for underestimating the strength of your magic. A prodigy of your level is terrifying...I figured one punch wouldn't be too bad, maybe shake him up and give him the sense to avoid attacking magicked traps. It's my fault. But now this is getting me fired up in a different way. Not for avenging the kid, but because you've pointed out something I despise about myself. That I'm reckless even after so many years. Today would be a good day for me to die to be honest, if you're willing to give me this fight."

"I would like to do one more thing first. I don't want my student or your mage interfering with our fight. I'm going to put up a barrier around her and we'll leave this tunnel, just give me a-"

She was cut off as he threw a punch right for her forehead. She barely reacted in time to duck the initial punch. He went into a flurry of strikes which she barely avoided while on the defensive. Protecting Alice while dodging the attacks which were likely intending to kill, was the most dangerous situation she had been in aside from when the integrity knight had come for her and Vector right after nearly killing her by accident.

He found the chance to parry an attack, using his full body of momentum in the overhead full body punch as a way to guide his movement while grabbing his forearm, spinning and slamming him into the wall of the tunnel. She barely managed to get enough magic off to protect the tunnel from collapsing under the collision. It was draining her fast, using both magic and physical energy. She huffed after slamming him into the wall of the tunnel and grabbed him by the left armpit, enhancing her strength a little with magic, enough to throw him out of the cave at the under talented mage who had been looking for an opening to attack her, who had been charging up a spell the whole time. The spell backfired when he landed on the mage, causing them both to burst in a cloud of frost. It wasn't a powerful spell considering the time it took to cast it. He really undersold just how untalented the mage was.

The cloud of frost dispersed with the mentor meditating. His next attack was going to be his fastest and his strongest one, he was putting everything into it. The mage didn't survive the collision. The moment he landed on the mage the way he did, the mage's neck snapped and spine cracked.

Kirim took the moment of reprieve to move the barrier for the door to protect just Alice for the time being and she dashed out to try and stop her previous mentor. She respected him, she really did. She couldn't let him stop her though. And he had mentioned it being a good way and place to die. She took a deep breath, resolving herself to try and counter his strike, to end him after he expends himself. Spending the rest of her energy in a finishing shot like him was too risky since she wouldn't be able to return home. He would just have to make do with the slightly unsatisfying final trade of blows.

She took in the details of how he was breathing, how his body was moving even in the slightest as he charged himself up. She focused herself to a point she was near his state of meditation. The moment she reached that point she noticed the launch, exactly where he was aiming his attack and she slid herself past his outstretched arm, grabbing it by the wrist and using his momentum to instantly spin him over and slammed his face into the ground. That speed and strength behind the attack was so immense, there was light debris falling inside of the cave and there was a crater formation around them. Blood lightly filled the crater around them.

"Phew..."

"...finish...me..."

She jumped back to her feet, startled. She looked him over and the blood surrounding them and she was baffled he could live through that much blood loss. The pugilists were frighteningly sturdy.

"Right...I'm sorry about your student after me. And have wondrous victory in the afterlife. I appreciated your tutelage in the time you taught me. I will be sure to use it in some ways for the rest of my life."

She conjured her prototype short sword reshaped from the demon tree and cut at his neck. She wanted to look away, but her nature told her not to. To burn it into her mind. That she had killed another person. She also needed to burn his body regardless so that there wouldn't be hoards of goblins soon to follow.

Kirim set her mentor's body, his student's and the mage's on fire and increased the intensity of the heat. As they reduced to ash, she sighed and began moving back to the tunnel. What she saw when she turned around was a horrifying scene. Alice being dragged out of the barrier by a magic wielding dragon knight. Her mother.

"Mom! Stop, please!"

Kirim dashed as fast and hard as she could to get in the way so Alice wouldn't be dragged right into the dark lands, but she was too late. Her mother had tossed Alice enough into the dark lands that Kirim caught her with her belly and they went tumbling backward. The wind was knocked out of her and she struggled to maintain consciousness. It was the first time she had been close to sleep and it was such a violent entrance she resisted with everything she had. She was also more worried about Alice than herself who was supposed to still be in the tunnel.

"What is my foolish daughter doing bringing a minion of the light lands' church here?"

Her voice was menacing in a way that was totally out of place. She had been strict with Kirim before but never so intensely. And she didn't bring Alice to the dark lands, she was only going to show what the dark lands looked like.

"Th-that would be your doing, mother..."

Kirim coughed at first and forced the retort out of her mouth.

"Stop...!"

Alice forced the word out of her mouth. She was terrified. She was suddenly seeing red everywhere. She wasn't sure if it was from being injured when thrown at Kirim, or if it was because of the sand beneath them being red, the sky above being red or the armour worn by Keika.

"Please...stop..."

Alice's pleas didn't fall on deaf ears.

"Explain why you came here, light lander."

Alice struggled to her feet, faced Keika and terror ran through her. She had never seen a dragon knight up close before. Kirim's mother was one of the legendary dragon knights...it somehow added up in her mind. With Kirim being so impressive, she had to have impressive lineage.

"...I am here with my teacher of magic, my best friend...Kirim was going to just turn back...but I suggested seeing the things she told me of here. I didn't believe this land had red skies, red land, and was always dark...we were just going to stay in the tunnel!"

Alice's explanation got through to Keika. She lowered her guard, put her short sword away at her hip and walked over to them. She looked over to someone else approaching, a familiar face to Kirim, not so familiar to Alice.

"What...are you doing here? I warned you not to come to this side Alice!"

Quinella's voice startled her. Alice was confused seeing that pugilist appearance and hearing Quinella's voice.

"I just said, that wasn't the intention! Why did Kirim's mother throw me out of the tunnel?!"

Keiko sighed.

"I need to hear an explanation from my daughter. Could you get off of her? It seems as if I threw you at her a little too hard after she fought such an experienced pugilist."

Alice stood up and turned to look at Kirim. Kirim was still struggling to breathe. Her eyes were trying to stay closed. The intensity of the urge to sleep was beyond her expectations. She had never felt the need to sleep before, had never been so close before, and suddenly she was on the verge of passing out. It was frightening to her, more than her strict mother.

"Hold on..."

Keika bounded over to them in one measured long leap. It was perfectly placed, landing right in front of them and kneeling beside Kirim. She pressed her left thumb against the middle of Kirim's forehead and the same hand's index finger over her right temple and channelled magic into her.

"That should do it. Have you finished resisting?"

Kirim took a deep breath and looked up into her mother's eyes before sharpening the look into a glare. She was furious for at least two reasons.

"What gave you the idea that throwing Alice at me was a good idea?! The light landers have a thing called the taboo index and it notifies their integrity knights that a taboo was broken as soon as it's broken! For her, entering the dark lands is taboo! She might not be able to reenter unless...!"

Kirim looked at Quinella but shut her eyes tightly before she felt she was giving away that Quinella could rectify the situation.

"It seems you're about as passionate about scolding your child as Kirito was in leaving me for the outskirts to have a child."

"Right...it's depressing to hear light sickness made her live a shorter life, but I'm glad it was fulfilling alongside one such as you. She even had a child. You have met this Kirii? She would be your younger cousin."

Kirim sighed and nodded.

"Yes, aunty Kirito requested me to teach him our traditions and I have been upholding it. Has Rithi really been keeping you and papa informed?"

Keika nodded.

"He has, but I haven't heard about light lander students."

Kirim groaned.

"I told him to tell you of them!"

She whistled to summon him, and he warped above her shoulder.

"Care to explain neglecting telling mama and papa about my students besides Kirii? I expressly told you to inform them of all of my students."

Rithi scratched his head with his claws with a shocked expression.

"Incredible, you managed to summon me...you have certainly grown as a mage-"

"EXPLAIN!"

He flapped his wings and hovered in front of her.

"I beg forgiveness, I relayed the information but I was brief in wording it compared to relaying you teaching Kirii. Your mother tends to hold onto the more importantly expressed information."

Keika glared at Rithi and he was drenched in sweat seeping through his scales immediately.

"The trouble is in how you relay the information. You know my habits, so you should be able to compensate!"

"Stop bickering! Alice is in trouble now because of this mistake! You knew I couldn't come here much, so please listen to Rithi a little more clearly when he comes with a message from me! And Rithi, I taught you my parents' listening habits, so relay better! You both have every fault here! How are we going to fix this?! Are you going to keep Alice on this side and kill the integrity knight that comes? Or am I supposed to take her back and let her get taken away to Centoria there so she can be punished for a taboo she didn't intentionally commit?! Coming to the dark lands is a death sentence to one who is restricted by the taboo!"

Kirim's mother had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Why not let me take care of her for a while? I can make her look like one of us easily. That would mean you need to explain to her family why she's missing. I'll take over with teaching her for you, unless you were teaching her some of that pole arm fighting and pugilism you were taught by travelling masters? Then you can just come home for a bit every day, since you're able to come over here."

Kirim sighed and flopped on her back. Things were getting out of hand. She had no choice.

"You would risk luring an integrity knight to our home...and it's just not as feasible as you think for me to make that distant of a run every day, or to use the magic to move here. It's a huge expense."

"Then maybe you should have thought before agreeing to show her what this side looks like. What kind of light lander doesn't trust their teachers?"

Kirim gave a disappointed expression.

"You don't seem to understand, mama. I'm only eleven years old. I don't have that kind of capacity, and light landers are curious just like we are. They aren't some different species entirely. I thought you explored the light lands for a while at my age too..."

"Well, I'm sorry. I haven't been to the light lands in over eight hundred years. I don't remember how light landers act normally. I can't think of any other solution...unless you have some idea, Quin?"

Quinella had used another alias during her visit to the dark lands. It was quite fortunate she worked well to avoid being found out.

"I recall this taboo index. I do feel the presence of an approaching integrity knight...how about we bait the knight somewhere we can control the situation and send them packing? We could maybe negotiate it to give her an exception."

Keika nodded with a smile.

"Trust you who lived there for some time to come up with a unique plan. Let's go with that."

Keika and Quinella were in agreement and Kirim sighed, nodding in agreement.

"How do you feel about this, Alice?"

She still seemed dazed and confused from the whole situation. She had been in a series of unknowns since the moment Kirim unlocked the door. It was back to back surprises and worries and danger and now they were going into a semi-planned confrontation with an integrity knight. It was all so much to take in.

"I...I'm up for it. As long as I can go home..."

She was a little spacey trying to keep up. She was tired.

"Hmm, Alice seems tired. It might be from the lower abundant energy of this side. Let's get this sorted quick so you can bring her back to the light lands."

All in agreement, they made their way quickly to the now barren orc village near the border wall. They repaired a building and set it up. A path to greet the knight, a well lit and at least clean and furnished barely enough to pass for modest space. It was the bare minimum that could be done with various magics between an expert of several hundred years and the child prodigy of said expert.

The rumble as the ground shook with the landing of the dragon was familiar. Kirim went up to the door and she realized she was shaking just as intensely as she had the previous time. She knew she was with Quinella who led the Axiom church the integrity knights served, and her mother, but she was still terrified by the very existence of integrity knights. So much raw power in each, and they were peerless in pursuit. If not for using illusion magic to escape, Kirim would have died during her first encounter with one. The most terrifying thing to her, was the lifeless expression the one she was used to meeting had.

On the other side of the opened door, was the integrity knight. It was an integrity knight different from who she was used to.

"Oh, this isn't quite what I was expecting. Are dark landers taking care of a light lands child? Or is this an abduction?"

The knight was lively and different from what Kirim was used to. He had short pasty blue hair, dark blue eyes, tan skin and he was as intense otherwise as the other knight Kirim had met. He in fact, was taller than the other knight.

"It's a misunderstanding. I must apologize. There was some miscommunication between my daughter and myself, which resulted in me making a rash action."

The knight sighed and ruffled his hair.

"This coming from a dragon knight, and the vice captain of them no less...can I get some testimony from others here? The alert was for miss Alice, so how about you give your explanation?"

Alice nodded and took a deep breath to centre herself. She was still exhausted from the lack of ambient energy in the dark lands.

"I...need a moment still. I'm...at my limit in this land."

The knight nodded and began chanting a shortened version of a sacred art which temporarily made a spot of light land in the dark lands, placed a hand on her head and did another short chant to relieve her exhaustion.

"How are you feeling now? Well enough to talk?"

Alice sighed in relief when she felt her energy returning.

"I am, thank you. What happened is, I wanted to see what the dark lands was like since my teacher, Kirim came from here. We were only going to stay in the cave, but her old mentor attacked her and when she was tired from fighting him, her mother came along and pulled me over into the dark lands. She wasn't informed that I was Kirim's student and what my situation was, so she might have seen me as trouble following after her."

Keika nodded.

"I'm incredibly sorry about that again. It seems I need to pay much more attention to Rithi when Kirim is away for long periods of time."

The knight was baffled at what he was seeing. A dark lands blood elf child teaching a light lands human child, and those around the blood elf child supporting the light lands child when there was a misunderstanding. He hadn't seen such a thing happen before at all. He wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Well, it seems my presence here was unneeded. Unless you young ones want an escort back to the light lands?"

The knight was offering them a ride back. He was much more kind than the other integrity knight Kirim had come to understand as the example for integrity knights.

"I for one would just like to know...are you what integrity knights are normally like? Because there was a knight I used to see in this region and he...saved me a couple of weeks ago after making me pass out from the anxiety of facing taboo punishment..."

The knight shook his head.

"No, I'm very much unlike most of the others, but while Administrator is out of the church I take over deeming if a taboo is worthy of being truly punished. I see no real wrong here except an unintended crossing into the dark lands. You just want to go back to the other side right? And that's the solution. We'll be going back to the light lands so Alice doesn't get permanent side effects from being in the dark lands."

Alice had a question as well.

"What should we call you, mister integrity knight? And I would very much appreciate your escort back home. We're very late to get back from when we said we would be."

He nodded.

"My name is Bercouli synthesis one. I'm the leader of the integrity knights. The knight that was stationed in this region...ah, that would have been synthesis forty eight. He lacks something very important for interaction, so he's usually sent to take care of threats rather than taboo issues. Sorry about him giving you a fright."

He was like a father apologizing for his child, rather than a coworker. From that point, a farewell was made, Bercouli brought Kirim and Alice to the light lands and Quinella got a bit more time with Keika.

The problem with Bercouli's return to the light lands with Kirim and Alice, was that he brought them straight to Centoria.