Claire and her team exited the teleportation gate on the floating castle. To her surprise there were a few adventurers loitering in the hall, looking bored out of their minds. She found herself staring as she found them looking very familiar, especially the rough looking one sitting on a crate reading a book with a small smile.

"Claire?"

Claire's attention quickly shifted to the sound of someone calling her name.

"Uncle Kaspian?"

Claire beamed with a bright smile as she ran to her favorite uncle.

"Uncle Kaspian, I didn't know you were going to be here," she said as she gave him a hug.

"Likewise. Were you told you were being selected for a mission too?"

"Yes! Does this mean we'll have a chance to work together?"

"Who knows, but it seems likely," Kaspian replied, a little surprised that he and his team of S ranked adventurers would be on the same mission as his niece.

"Oh Uncle," Claire said as she broke the hug. "Let me introduce you to my team."

Kaspian looked in the direction she was looking and saw Thomas, Jerry, and Theo as they took a few steps closer.

"Hello sir, my name is Thomas, light orange core, fire affinity," he introduced as he held out his hand, and Kaspian shook it.

"I'm Jerry, also light orange core, sound affinity."

As Theo stepped up he stood taller with a more authoritative look about him.

"Theodore Maxwell sir. We met a few years ago at the Ant Hill after the dungeon raid with Claire," Theo said as he held out his hand.

Kaspian took his hand and shook it. He could instantly tell Theo was pretty strong, not Arthur strong, but pretty strong for the average person his age. As he looked him in the eyes he could see he was nervous, which caught him off guard.

"The pleasure is mine. I'm surprised to see you still staying by Claire's side after all these years. I would have thought you would have gotten your own team by now."

Theo blushed a little. "I feel my talents are better served watching Claire's back."

"Well she's very lucky to have you around," Kaspian replied, noticing the blush.

A few minutes later the teleportation gate activated again, and Curtis along with two knights walked through.

"Can I have your attention everyone," Curtis called out. "If you'll be coming with us, gather your belongings, as soon as we're done inventorying everything we'll be on our way."

Quickly Curtis locked eyes with Theo, leading him to noticing Claire as well, and walked straight to them.

"Long time no see," Curtis said to Theo as they bumped fists.

"Yeah well, some of us have to actually do work. We all can't have cushy jobs like this," Theo teased.

"And this is my last day of this 'cushy job'. Starting tomorrow I'll be preparing for this mission with you guys."

"And any word on what this mission is?" Claire asked before giving Curtis a hug.

"None," Curtis said, then broke the hug. "All I know is that Arthur is running it. But if you'll excuse me. The sooner that I account for everyone, the sooner we can go."

—————————————————————

As always with everyone during their first visit to the sanctuary, they felt either wonder or disappointment towards the ancient mage city.

"Claire," Tess called out as she waved.

Quickly Claire ran to Tess and immediately wrapped her arms around her once in range.

"Tess, I missed you!" Claire said as she held her friend tight. "Oh! And congratulations on your engagement!" She squealed.

"Thanks," Tess replied as she returned the hug.

Claire released Tess from her hold.

"So have you picked your maid of honor yet?" Claire asked.

"Maid of honor?" Tess replied as she tilted her head confused.

"Yeah, it's a title for your closest friend who helps you with anything you need with planning the wedding, deals with the bridesmaids, and plans the bachelorette party."

Tess had a deer in headlights look.

"There's nothing like any of that in elven weddings." Tess then gave a curious smile. "But I am curious about this bachelorette party, what is it?"

"Wait," Theo interrupted. "If you don't know about a bachelorette party, does that mean Arthur's not having a bachelor party?"

Tess shook her head.

"CURTIS!" Theo yelled and ran off.

"Don't mind him," Claire said dismissively. "A bachelorette party is a human tradition for the bride and all of her friends..."

"All new personnel please come this way," Kathyln called out, interrupting Claire. "I'll be showing you to your building and giving room assignments. You will all drop off your things then I'll escort you to the mission briefing."

"We'll continue this later," Claire said, then left to get her room.

—————————————————————-

"Alright guys," Curtis said as he sat down in front of Theo. "I just finished talking to General Bloom, and he said he's willing to help us out. All we need to do now is find a location."

Currently everyone involved with the combat portion of the mission were filing in and taking their seats in a larger room within the town hall building. Nearly everyone was already inside making guesses on the mission or catching up with old friends they hadn't seen in a while.

"We should also talk to the commander about this too," Feyrith added.

"Why?" Asked Curtis.

"Beside the obvious, this is essentially a military base during a war," Feyrith replied with annoyance in his voice. "We can't just do whatever we want here, we need to get this cleared through him."

"He's got a point," Theo commented.

"Fine, I'll try and talk with him today. Then you guys are helping me find a location."

As conversations were being had, Arthur and another mage were standing in the doorway to enter the room, staying just far enough back so they wouldn't be seen.

"I don't know about this," Elijah said with a worried look on his face.

"It'll be fine. I told you what to say to everyone who asks any questions. Just fall back to that and they'll no doubt drop any conversation about what happened to you," Arthur replied.

"But what about Nico? What if he comes out?"

Arthur placed his hands on Elijah's shoulder.

"Nico is locked away. You told me yourself, these last two nights were your best sleep since I brought you back. So don't worry so much."

Elijah sighed and looked around the corner to see their friends from Xyrus Academy.

"Are you sure this is a good idea for me to even come along on this mission?"

"No, but if anyone can get rid of Nico for good it's Djinn."

"And you're confident they'll help?"

"If they can then I think I may be able to talk whoever we find into it."

"Ok fine," Elijah conceded, and leaned his back against the wall and took a deep breath. "I don't think I can do this."

"You can."

"You're not giving me a choice are you?"

"Nope," Arthur replied, and pushed Elijah out into the room.

The first to see him was Feyrith, whose jaw practically dropped to the floor. Seeing this others started looking over.

"Elijah?" Claire gasped as she slowly stood up from her seat.

"Hey everyone," Elijah replied nervously with a weak wave.

Immediately his old friends scrambled from their seats and ran to him. First to arrive was Theo, who took him into a tight bear hug as he lifted him off the ground.

"Hey there buddy," Theo said as he held back happy tears from seeing him.

"Ow, my back," Elijah managed to get out.

"Sorry," Theo replied as he lowered him back down.

"Where have you been?" Lilia asked as she took over hugging him. "We thought you were dead."

"Prisoner camp," Elijah replied darkly. Everyone immediately became silent. "Arthur found me and broke me out a few weeks ago."

"A few weeks ago?" Lilia questioned as she looked at Curtis. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was told not to," he replied flatly.

"So will you be joining us on this mission?" Feyrith asked as he rested a hand on his back.

"That's the plan," Elijah replied nervously.

The former Xyrus Academy Disciplinary Committee and Student Council members retook their seats as they made room for Elijah and rejoiced the return of their once lost friend. Arthur just stood in the doorway watching with a small smile on his face.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Letting him out of his room, without mana suppression artifacts that is," Tess asked as she walked up beside him. She wanted to go back to how things were, but knowing there was someone else in Elijah's head that wanted to essentially hurt her and everyone else left her feeling uneasy.

"It's not all that different from how things were. His mana was too strong so he kept breaking the artifacts every few days."

"And you didn't tell the council because?"

"After that happened the first time I had Regis watching him at night, and either Sylvie or Regis with you during the day. If he tried anything they would have killed him. Also, I fed him poison in his first meal after I brought him here. Since then every meal he's had has had a treatment to suppress the symptoms."

"That doesn't sound very effective if we were to lose control of him," Tess commented.

"It's sensitive to mana. His core can't trigger it, but once he leaves here, where there is no ambient mana, the poison will ravage his body and kill him in minutes," Arthur said darkly.

"You really thought this out."

"Yeah," Arthur sighed. "As much as I want Elijah back, I can't allow Nico to get out either, he's just too dangerous."

Tess wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest.

"It's hard to not look at him as someone who will hurt me, but I really hope that you can help him."

Tess then gave him a peck on the lips then walked out to join the others. Arthur waited a few more minutes before he walked in.

"Hello everyone," Arthur said loudly to get everyone's attention. "Please sit down so I can start briefing you all on the mission, and I ask that you keep any questions till the end."

Almost everyone was already seated, so after only a few seconds the room was completely silent.

"As I'm sure you've all heard already, welcome to the Sanctuary. This will be home for an undisclosed amount of time as you all train and prepare for this. Now I know you've all been asking, what is this mission? Allow me to start from the beginning. Over a thousand years ago as the ancient mages knew the end was near for them, they created what the Alacryan's call the Relic Tombs. There they secured their vast knowledge, with the hopes that their legacy would one day be carried on by others. There are four of these tombs, and two of them are here in Dicathen."

Part of Arthur wanted to name the Asura as the ones that brought forth the extinction of the Djinn over Kezess greed for their knowledge aether, but he reminded himself that not only would that do them no good, but if he failed to deal with the Asura everyone who knew this could be at risk.

"Of course these tombs weren't left defenseless. We chose adventurers for this mission because these tombs are primarily protected by aether beasts, so you will all be better suited for this over soldiers. What you will have to do while in there, is throw logic out the window. You can clear an entire floor of beasts in a day, but the next day they will all respawn. Now this mission will consist of two combat teams, the first will remain on the first floor while the second dives down with me to the bottom. The objective of the first team will be to provide protection for the mining operation that will be happening. What will they be mining you ask?"

Arthur pulled the white stone from his storage rune, making it look like it came from his ring.

"This is called industructium. The Alacryan's discovered it, and it's extremely strong. Once refined and turned into a weapon, it'll take months to get dull and not even a Lance will be able to break it. This new metal will be very valuable towards the war effort, so this mining operation will be a long term project, with the plans of actually establishing a town down there."

Everyone looked at each other and Arthur. To them this sounded like a dungeon, so while mining in a dungeon didn't sound too far-fetched, a town made absolutely no sense. Seeing the looks Arthur continued.

"I know the idea of a town sounds ridiculous and I would explain, but there's no way my explanation could ever do it justice. You'll just have to trust me. Now, any questions?"

A blonde woman with a bust that rivaled Angela raised her hand.

"Why don't you know how long we'll be here preparing?"

"Several reasons. One, the relic tombs can only be accessed by teleportation gate, but the problem is that once we connect our teleportation gate to the corresponding one in the tomb, if we break the connection then it will be extremely difficult to re-establish the connection, leaving everyone stranded. With that said, if we leave it connected then everyone here in the sanctuary will be cut off from the outside world. Now evidence has been discovered that there is another teleportation gate down here. So as you are training, we will also be searching for this other gate."

The truth is that there was no such evidence. In the previous timeline, before Arthur arrived in the sanctuary, a second teleportation gate was found in one of the tunnels and brought into the town. Unfortunately for Arthur he never knew where it was, only that it was found in one of the tunnels to the east of town.

"The second is that to get to each level you need to use a teleportation gate. But here's the thing about them, they will separate party members and randomly send them to any floor."

There were mummers among everyone as this was sounding much more dangerous than an ordinary dungeon.

"Thankfully for us, the Alacryan's already figured out a solution to this. They created an artifact that allows party members to stick together when going through the teleportation gate and we just so happened to get a hold of one. As we speak, master Gideon is working to duplicate this artifact for us. So as soon as he does that and makes enough for everyone, we'll be leaving."

"Who will be team one and who will be team two?" A young man asked.

He appeared to be close to Arthur's age with short Caramel blonde hair, with one eye emerald green and the other sky blue. He had a lean but fit build like Arthur, with a strong chiseled

appearing face that matched the older man beside him that had to be his father, the ice mage Arthur faced to gain his AA adventurer license. Arthur then listed off the names of everyone taking part in the dive, the same team that spent that summer as adventurers all those years ago.

"Excuse me!" An older burly red haired adventurer shouted as he stood up. "General, for a mission of this importance and seeing as it sounds similar to a dungeon, you should be taking the most experienced team possible! No offense to those youngsters, but they don't cut it."

Arthur stared at him down silently with a look of annoyance until he finally looked uncomfortable and sat down himself.

"I'll answer your argument with a question," Arthur said as he looked towards Kaspian. "Kaspian, what are the two most important things needed for a team to successfully complete a dive?"

"Trust and solid teamwork," Kaspian replied casually, fully understanding how Arthur chose his team.

"Thank you," Arthur replied, then looked to the large group of adventurers. "I must be the one to reach the bottom, and I can't lead or fight alongside a team I'm not familiar with. The team I chose I have fought and trained beside for years and don't let their age fool you, they are all strong and capable enough to complete this dive."

"Why is it that you need to complete this dive?" Kaspian asked.

Arthur was silent for a second as he gathered his thoughts and decided how to respond to this.

"The ancient mage's magic is a bit different from our own, it's not as versatile, but more powerful than mana, and the spell's strength and effectiveness is determined by one's understanding. The Alacryan's leader Agrona has been researching the ultimate ancient mage spell that could grant him the power needed to defeat the Asura. Unfortunately for him the relic tombs don't allow those higher beings to enter, so his research had been very slow, hundreds of years slow. However I can enter the tomb, so I've been able to gain insight into this spell much faster than him. Our hopes are that the last piece needed to gain enough understanding of this spell to use it can be found at the bottom of the tomb. If we can gain access to this spell our hopes are that we can bring an end to this war once and for all."

"What are this aetheric beasts that you mentioned earlier?" Claire asked.

"Aether is the fifth element of magic just like mana. It is a complete different element from mana which was used by ancient mages and currently by Indrath clan of asuras. Most of the things that these ancient mages created like Xyrus city, teleportation gates, and floating castle was created by using aether. Just like other four elements one only need to have affinity for aether but as for now we don't have anyways to test it. The only confirmed people who can use aether are Elder Rinia who is over one hundred years old and myself. This is also a part of the reason why I have to get to the bottom of relictombs."

"What kind of training will we be participating in?" Lunaris asked.

"There is no mana in the relic tomb, so mana conservation is imperative. You all will be working to gain the most from your spells while using the minimal amount of mana. I know you older mages probably think you don't need this, but there is always room for improvement. We can't afford any mistakes. Now to help you with your training, Elders Flamesworth and Buhnd have volunteered to help, and along with that some floors in these relictombs are designed in such a way that to clear them you have to solve a puzzle of sorts. Master Gideon's assistant has been working on creating a training room for that, similar to what Alacryans have." Arthur said as he gestured to the elders in the back of the room.

The briefing continued for a few more minutes, where there were a few more questions that came up. As the briefing had ended everyone was filing out to get some rest or settle into their apartments, as tomorrow training began. Arthur's friends were all going to catch up with Elijah and invited him to come along, but he was forced to decline as he had to go train with Bairon and Mica before he delivered his report on them to the council that night. As he watched them leave, wishing he could go along with them, he saw Hester waking up.

"Hello Elder, did you need something?" Arthur asked.

"Yes. I was hoping that you could help Senyir and I. I remember that you are close with Jasmine, I was hoping you could help us by arranging a meeting with her," Hester asked.

Her voice was sad and expression almost pleading. Arthur wasn't sure if this was due to hurt pride or she was genuinely sorry for everything that happened to Jasmine, but ultimately he knew this didn't matter.

"You know, Jasmine is like a big sister to me. There is little I wouldn't do for her if she asked." Arthur's face became serious. "That said, there's also little I wouldn't do to protect her. I heard about your conversation with Pasta, and while I do feel that he was a little out of line, I won't go against him."

"If you're afraid he might come after you..."

"Afraid?" Arthur scoffed. "I'm stronger than everyone down here, probably on this continent. This is not ego or arrogance, just a fact, but I could handle every Lance without even breaking a sweat. No, I won't go against him because he knows more about this situation than I do. Now if Jasmine were to come to me and ask for the same thing, I would help without hesitation. So until she makes it clear that she wants to speak with you or her sister, I ask that you please listen to Pasta and stay away from her. Buhnd can handle her training too, so don't think you can use that as an excuse."

Arthur then walked off leaving the Elder beside herself, having no idea what she could do to try and atone to Jasmine.

—————————————————————-

"I hope I'm not late," Arthur announced as he entered the sanctuary council chamber.

"That depends, what was keeping you?" Bairon asked, as the eyes of the council and Lances were on Arthur.

"I was just getting the most recent data from Emily," Arthur replied as he held up a few sheets of paper.

"In that case you are right on time," Mica replied eagerly.

"In that case I'll begin. Now this data is only after three days of training with Mica and Bairon since I had assignments outside of the sanctuary," Arthur stated before looking at the papers. "What I will be reading here is mana levels using a point system to gauge mana levels, developed by Gideon and Emily, and we'll be using Varay as a point of reference. Also we'll be ignoring the numbers below one thousand for a margin of error."

"Why Varay? Why not you?" Merial asked.

"Because the sensors can't read beyond one million points," Arthur replied casually, leaving everyone shocked. "During the initial reading Bairon was rated at five hundred and seventy two thousand points, and Mica was at six hundred and one thousand."

Everyone could immediately feel the pressure of Mica's ego.

"As for Varay, eight hundred ninety one thousand."

Mica's ego immediately deflated.

"What about General Bloom and myself?" Aya asked.

"Aya, six hundred ninety four thousand. General Bloom, eight hundred eighty three thousand."

"Ha! Notice that gap there you little fire shit?" Pasta said to taunt Bairon.

Bairon however, though clearly annoyed, kept his mouth shut.

"Now after training. Bairon, five hundred fifty five thousand. Mica, six hundred thirteen thousand."

"So they were able to grow," Blaine said excitedly to no one in particular.

"Hey! How did Bairon make more growth than Mica?!"

"I think it was because Bairon would come at me with everything he had," Arthur stated. "You however kept holding back. You need to fight me like you're trying to kill me like Bairon does."

"Now that we know the lances can get stronger, we need to keep moving forward on this," Virion stated.

"We shouldn't have all the lances down here at once, there are still missions that need to be completed," Priscilla added.

"Considering my other duties, I think only two at a time," Arthur said.

"Since this was originally for a week, how about they come in on a weekly schedule," said Alduin.

"Alright then Arthur, you'll be staying down here unless absolutely needed on the surface, and we'll have two different lances training with Arthur every week," Virion concluded.

"There's one problem with that plan," Arthur interjected. "Counting Pasta there will be five people I need to train. So either during one week I'll only have one person, or we'll be having to change up the rotation...."

Arthur immediately stopped and grabbed at his head.

"Arthur?!" Virion asked in a sudden panic.

"It's Regis, he's yelling through our bond."

"Calm down, what is it?"

"Tess. She suddenly stopped absorbing mana from the horn and doubled over in pain, then she passed out."

"Tess," Arthur breathed out, just loud enough to be heard, then god stepped out of the meeting.

Hearing Tess' name combined with Arthur's sudden departure, Virion, Alduin, and Merial ran out as well.

"Tess!" Arthur shouted as he appeared in their kitchen in a flash of purple lightning.

"Over here," Regis called out from behind him.

Quickly Arthur rushes to her side as he kneels down on the floor.

"I don't know what happened, everything was going normal when she suddenly stopped and grabbed at her abdomen," Regis explained as he recounted the recent events.

"Wait her abdomen?" Arthur asked, then placed a hand on her stomach, over her core. He breathed a sigh of relief. "She's fine. I went through the same thing when I reached the white core stage."

"Wait, you knew this was going to happen and didn't warn us?!"

"I was literally in the middle of combat training, I thought the pain was related to that."

"You'd think the Asura would have told you about it."

"Apparently they don't feel pain when they reach the white core stage, and the artifact the lances use knocks them out for a day after they're bound to it, then wake up as a white core. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't know."

Arthur then scooped Tess up in his arms and carried her to their bed. He laid her down and pulled the mountain elephant blanket over her, then tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear before kissing her forehead and walking out.

"Tessia!" Virion shouted as he and her parents ran into the room.

"She's ok," Arthur said cooley. "She just passed out, and is resting in bed now."

"What happened?" Merial asked with obvious concern.

"She just solved our scheduling issue with our white core mages, now we have an even number for training."