Kyla froze at the sudden demand and when she turned to the source of the voice, what she saw was an actual army. But there was something wrong about them-

"They’re puppets"

Her father explained and through the bits of information she could quickly recall, Kyla focused her attention on the soldier’s eyes.

Dull and lifeless, they did not carry the "sense of self" which should be present even in animals.

They were like the eyes of a corpse and through that observation, Kyla was able to understand what her father meant by calling them puppets.

"I see, so the "Emperor" was indeed able to survive"

A woman who was familiar to Kellin appeared.

"Urgh..."

"What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

She asked with a smile, but Kellin did not answer.

On the other hand, Yarah’s eyes glowed with intense ferocity the moment the woman appeared.

"Oh my... so you’re the deceased lover? Sorry, but I’m not here to steal that old man away, I just want to find the fruits of my labour"

The woman chuckled as she directed her gaze at Kyla but Kellin stepped forward.

"You know that the boy is worthless right?"

"Oh my, it was a boy?"

"Shut it, Kyla’s my daughter with Yarah, she has no business with a wench like you!"

Following Kellin’s declaration, a powerful air of death enveloped the land.

"Tsk- so what? You still owe me, our deal was for you to help me create a spawn worthy of my magic. In exchange, I gave you the secret to Merlin’s system. I am simply retrieving what should belong to me"

"KYLA IS NOT YOURS! SHE NEVER WILL BE!"

Kellin declared and at that moment, hundreds of skeletal apparitions manifested themselves.

The soldiers had no reaction still carrying the same dull expression but their actions were that of trained professionals.

While they started off looking like a band of thugs, the moment the skeletal monsters appeared, the soldiers quickly repositioned themselves with inhuman speed and ability.

*takatakatakatakataka*

The familiar rumbling sound that was accompanied by whistle of winds that reached hit ones chest like a rolling drum made Kellin immediately look up.

What he saw was a familiar sight to him but an unfamiliar one to Kyla.

Even Yarah had seen such a sigh occasionally in her life but Kyla who was raised in a safe and conflict free environment was witnessing it for the first time.

The iron pegasus that is loved by many ground operators was armed to the teeth and was pointing directly at Kyla and her parents.

"An Apache... how- no... why the hell do you have such a thing?"

Kellin asked with a grave expression, the witches of Salem were threats but they weren’t warfreaks. They hated losing their own so they always kept a distance from conflicts.

While controlling a few unknown grunts was something they would do on occasion, especially if they were being hunted down.

To capture military vehicles was something that they would never try to do.

After all, the US military could easily write off the deaths of a couple soldiers but the loss of a multimillion dollar aircraft and a pilot trained to drive it was not cheap.

Training a pilot alone costs millions, their salaries also increase with their mission and rank was also higher than private. It was near impossible for any sane officer to hand control of a multi million dollar vehicle to a private fresh out of boot camp.

Moreover, Apaches aren’t just scattered about in random military bases.

While there would be occasions when it does happen, seeing the armaments it has on and the soldiers that surrounded the witch-

"What base did you attack? Is Salem trying to start a war with the US?"

Kelling asked, his expression serious but the witch laughed.

"You don’t know?"

"Huh?"

"When was the last time your daughter went on the internet?"

"..."

The family went silent, Kyla was too focused on her magic training that she completely forgot about the internet.

Moreover, people only love the internet because it allows them to connect to the world.

If you don’t want to involve yourself with the world then disconnecting from the internet was the modern way of going into the mountains to train.

Kyla did that, moreover, her self isolation worked out because the location they were in was very conducive to such actions.

Reception was shit in these parts and the nearest outlet was a couple of miles back at the farmhouse.

Going to and from the place was time consuming and boring so Kyla ended up holing herself in the workshop.

Moreover, there was quite an abundance of wild game and preserved food in the workshop.

It was as if Richard was also planning to isolate himself in the workshop sometime in the future.

It also didn’t help that both Kellin and Yarah believed it was better for Kyla to train herself before doing anything else.

Yarah who learned of the mystical world from Kellin who had lived in the mystical world for most of his life.

The two were fully aware of what kind of shit their daughter was dragged into but compared to the life she had before, her current reality was better.

Not to mention, the connection she had with Richard was enough of an incentive to make her stay.

It was like having a direct line to an influential billionaire in the non-mystical world.

Which is something that Richard had as well, in a way, sticking to Richard may be dangerous but it would give Kyla more security and opportunities in the future.

Nothing comes without risks but the rewards of following under Richard’s command far outweighed any of the risks she was going to have to take.

But the next words of the witch made them rethink their position.

"Cindy, she showed off her magic to the world. Whether it was done under the order of Richard or not is unknown, but the results of her actions are evident. The world has secretly started a witch hunt, the US is leading and the FMC had already fallen, all that’s left is Salem and Nova Munda"

"What?!"

Kyla didn’t know the gravity of the situation and she didn’t really grasp the meaning behind the witch’s words but Kellin...

His reaction said it all.

"Now then, will you come with me? If you still can’t trust me, then how about looking up news regarding recent events? I don’t mind waiting but I have to warn you, the US Government had already sanctioned the deployment of hunters- witch hunters"

Kellin clenched his fist, this did not go unnoticed by Kyla who turned to the witch and asked.

"I don’t have my phone with me, and I don’t have any plans to turn my back on you- how can I trust that your words are genuine?"

"When was the last time you met with Richard?"

"..."

The witch smirked and then she followed up.

"After he went to Japan, Richard started to work on "witch hunting", I don’t know what he was planning but he was obviously targeting witches. Maybe something happened in japan, I don’t know and I don’t care. All I care about is the fact that he somehow reached the UK, Cindy revealed her magic to the world and now everyone wants to hunt us down"

"You say "us" as if I am witch like you"

"Aren’t you? Weak as it may be, I could feel that the magic your father used did not come from him. Only true mystical beings could use magic in a spiritual state, your father is nothing more than a spirit tied down to this world through magic. His only use is to become a battery for magic, not an actual user of magic"

Kyla went silent, her father had specifically told her to never use magic first. If anyone were to use magic it would be him, using magic through her.

It was something Kellin learned to do after observing how the Goddess used Richard as a conduit for her own mystical abilities.

The method was genius and other mystics would have been fooled but the witch before them was not a novice. Instead, she was a monster that even Kellin could not really do anything about.

"We’ll come with you, but remember, we are still Richard’s people"

Kellin was the one who spoke but his threat had the opposite effect.

"Oh I know, I won’t harm you guys, after all, even I want a taste of that newly awakened monster"

"..."

The witches’ words made Kellin realize that something big had just happened.

’Get as much information as you can, we can’t stay blind forever, also... it seems that you have to up your game. Whatever that kid did, he became sperm donor number 1 for a bunch of of crazy nymphos’

Kyla didn’t know what to say, the telepathic communication her father gave her made the young woman have a plethora of thoughts but what she was now worried about was the future.

She wanted to know about what was happening.

The way the witch spoke made it feel as if things were bad but quite calm still.

Yet, the implications of her statement was anything but "small".

Even then, when she thought about it more, Kyla realized that, whatever was going on, it was like the start of a movie. Moreover, the main character was obviously Richard and if he was the MC then she-

A smile formed on Kyla’s face as she followed the witch to who knows where.