Chapter 303 - Flying Man

"Open the gates, Palace of Cedar! The Emperor of Kres has come to pay a visit!"

Ivan knocked several times and called out, but there didn't seem to be any kind of reaction from within the building.

"Is this not the Palace of Cedar? Is this place abandoned?" he wondered audibly as he frowned and contemplated whether to force himself in or not.

Oh well…

He'd try to open the place to check whether there were people inside or not. If there were, he would just apologize. If not…

If not, he'd try to see if there were any clues as to where he could find Stribog so he could see Ali and talk to her about her father. It was what he came here for anyway.

He, Fredek, and Alistair had already guessed what might have transpired which led to Alinea's and her subordinates' deaths. They were set up by the nobles supporting the king as they thought that there's a huge possibility that the young princess could overthrow her own brother and become the queen.

Also, after Alistair came out as the Returner to Ancestry, Perun, they were able to grasp a very reliable source of news. Based on the source, in the months before her death, Alinea had thought that Alistair hated her, which was utter nonsense. However, the source was pretty sure that the princess really thought that way.

But the truth was that it was Alinea who had started acting strange, and so, Alistair thought that someone from the rebels had already made contact and was trying to brainwash the princess. Nonetheless, the source said that it was also not the truth. Alinea never talked to the anti-Alistair faction, which led them to a different type of conclusion: Alinea harbored a shadow lurker within her that gave her false memories.

The Warrior Princess of Ritz was probably infected during the Immortal War six months before Alistair asked them to go on a quest to find the artifact that caused their deaths. There was no other explanation after all.

Even without saying anything, Ivan knew that Alistair was scared to meet Alinea. He was scared to see her hate him because of those false memories, but his fear now was greater than before. Why? Because in the end, as Perun, he truly made her suffer by breaking her soul. This was why Alistair was truly devastated.

"Ali, where are you, little one?" he called out softly, using Alistair's nickname to his child.

Having made up his mind, Ivan shifted on his feet as he pulled his hand back, only to use his fist to smash the area around the doorknob. Of course, with his strength, instead of just punching a hole through the door, he ended up destroying the entire thing.

Oooops …

With a sheepish smile, Ivan cleared the debris, piling the pieces of hard wood in his arms and placing them on the side. It was something unheard of a royal to do, but Ivan was pretty much always on the road and very used to taking good care of things himself, even with cleaning up. It was his second nature to tidy things up after himself. Satisfied that he didn't miss out a piece, he stepped into the house and frowned.

"What is this?"

Ivan's jade eyes scanned the area. As he had surmised, the place was abandoned – but not for a while. The house was still clean, although there were some clutters here and there. It looked like the people left in a hurry and didn't bother to clear the place. There were things left haphazardly on the table, some papers and snacks.

Ivan walked towards the table to spread some of the documents there to read. The papers all had the sticks and square type of writing similar to Stribog's letter and he sighed. It was a good thing Alistair gave him the skill to adapt to any language earlier, so he's able to read them effortlessly now.

One of those was a piece of glossy paper with photos of strange food in them and he read the note at the bottom out loud. "Call 77-77-88 for delivery. Free honey mustard sauce and a glass of soda for orders above 500JPY."

Huh?

"What's a JPY?" Ivan wondered out loud as he frowned at it. "Must be the name of the food. But who would eat five hundred pieces of this?"

He threw the flyer back on the table and grabbed another one. "Tokyo," he read out loud again as he flipped the pages. "International Business and Economic Conference," he continued as his eyes spotted a group picture and he grinned.

He had immediately spotted Stribog standing in the middle of the group. "Indeed, he is Ritz' twin brother. They look the same." He had to say though that Alistair looked more celestial than his twin who seemed to adapt well with the humans.

By now, he was convinced that this was not the Palace of Cedar. Still, even without the photo, he knew that this place was connected to Stribog. How?

Ivan's jade eyes narrowed and gold specks appeared in them again. The surroundings faded into black and white, but there were lights everywhere, traces of divine powers. Even if this place was abandoned, he knew people with divine inheritance were here and used their abilities.

He looked around, following the bright lights and lines, the remnants of divine powers used in this place. There was an energy that was familiar as it gave off the same powers the portal had. It was no brainer to think it was Stribog's.

Aside from that, there was also a trace of dark energy. It was faint compared to the strong divine ones, and so he surmised that this might be Alinea's.

"Tokyo, huh?"

He wondered if the real Palace of Cedar where Stribog resided was in the place called Tokyo. He took the page with the IBEC photo and stepped out of the house. Still using his eyes' special ability, he was able to see more traces of divine power outside.

There were two types of strong energy that remained around the veranda, so he thought that Stribog and another strong being hanged out there for some time. Also, his eyes were able to see strong lines from the ground up like a thread.

"Amazing!" It wouldn't be difficult for him to search for them now.

With a grin, Ivan raised his hand to summon his elementals, and both Rashel and Bebe appeared. The vermilion birds already understood what their master was intending, and so they burst into flames, wrapping their master with it so they could carry him to the sky.

And they did!

Ivan soared into the blue skies, following the trail of Stribog's energy. He was flying at great speed, with the goal in sight. However, he didn't know how long he'd been up in the air when something huge came in his direction.

Huh?

Ivan's eyes widened as a giant metallic bird appeared before him accompanied by a weird buzzing noise and he screeched into a halt or he'd slam against it.

"Woah!"

To his surprise, several faces appeared on the glassy holes of the metallic bird and he was horrified to realize that it must be a man-eating elemental.

Trained in the military to retreat upon meeting unknown enemies, Ivan ordered his vermilion birds to hide again so the bird wouldn't see him. But of course, this made him drop to the ground.

As he fell towards the ground below where he could see a concrete forest, Ivan's jade eyes narrowed at the body of the huge metallic bird called JAL and vowed to find it and defeat it next time.

Meanwhile, inside Japan Airlines carrier, all the passengers were abuzz with excitement upon seeing a flying man surrounded by flames outside their window. Some who were able to take pictures and videos still couldn't believe what they just saw while the crew tried to calm everyone down. However, some who had access to the inflight wifi were able to post about it on their social media accounts and the news spread like fire.