The panic that had struck the main Altavis family in the living room slowly subsided thanks to the calmness shown by Vildan. However, guilt still lingered in his mother's heart.
Virena, Vildan's biological mother, immediately stepped forward to approach her son. The silvery-white-haired woman knelt in front of the sofa, leveling her gaze with the boy she had left alone for the entire day.
"Vildan, please forgive me for being too focused on my training at the military headquarters, to the point that I forgot and left you all alone here when this chaos happened." Virena said in a tone laden with regret, her hand reaching out to gently stroke her son's cheek. "Right now, you must be feeling hungry, aren't you?"
Without waiting for her son's answer, Virena immediately stood back up. "Wait a moment, I will quickly go to the kitchen and make some delicious food for you."
However, unexpectedly, Vildan simply shook his head casually.
"There is no need, Mother. I just finished my lunch." the boy answered.
Virena and everyone who heard it fell silent instantly. They were quite surprised to hear what the boy had just said.
He already ate? Virena thought in confusion, her brow furrowing. Can my son cook for himself now? No! That is absolutely impossible.
"Wait, did you say you already ate?" Duchess Larina, Vildan's grandmother, repeated, sharing the confusion. The elegant woman stepped closer. "Who fed you, sweetie? Did you go to the kitchen and cook all by yourself?"
The boy shook his head innocently again.
"Uncle Alvin, Uncle Allen, and Uncle Arken cooked it for me!" Vildan answered loudly and honestly, explaining everything clearly to everyone in the living room.
Silence...
For a few seconds, time in the living room seemed to stand still. The air felt frozen. Everyone, without exception, was jolted in shock. Their eyes widened immensely upon hearing the three names that had been doing nothing but lying on a bed for more than eight years.
"W-What did you just say?" William murmured in shock.
Without wasting any time, the silvery-white long-haired man immediately turned his body around. He rushed out of the living room, quickening his pace down the hallway toward the room where Kazien and his three spouses had been sleeping all this time.
Seeing William run, Duke Elgard, Duchess Larina, and the other family members seemed to snap out of their shock. They hastily followed, running behind William toward the room.
Their hearts were pounding fast between hope and panic.
However, the hope of seeing the four faces they missed instantly vanished after William pushed the bedroom door wide open.
They did not find Kazien or his three spouses. The room was completely silent. There was only a bed, now empty, in the middle of the quiet room.
"They... the three of them are really awake." William said, panting, his voice trembling as he still couldn't believe the reality he was witnessing. "And that means... Kazien has also regained consciousness. They have completed their training in that realm."
"Seeing that they are not here, it seems our brother did not want to waste any time." Selena chimed in with a rational and authoritative tone. "He must have immediately moved toward the source of the disaster with the three of them. We cannot be left behind. We must also move immediately!"
"You are right, Sister Selena!" William replied, his face hardening with resolve. However, a second later, his expression turned hesitant as he remembered the young family members. "But, what about our children? We can't possibly bring them there, can we?"
"Let Karen take care of our children in the underground shelter!" Davin chimed in from the doorway, providing a solution to his two older siblings who were struck by a dilemma. "We must move fast and divide our forces to minimize the casualties on this Azvel Continent!"
Hearing Davin's firm words, everyone in the room nodded in agreement.
A quick decision indeed had to be made.
William immediately turned to his wife. "Rosalia! Stay here and take care of our daughter and the children of my other three siblings. We are going to destroy those dungeons!"
"Alright, if that is indeed the plan you all desire." Rosalia answered without arguing. "I will guard the children here with Karen."
In another corner of the room, Dave looked at his wife with a pleading yet firm gaze. "You stay here too, Raliana. Please help them look after the children."
Raliana lowered her head, hiding her disappointed expression.
"Even though I really wanted to plunge into the battlefield and help Kazien." Raliana said listlessly, her voice laden with suppressed desire. "But... if it is your unanimous decision for the best strategy, then I will obey and remain here."
Once the division of tasks and decisions reached a final agreement, everyone assigned to go find and destroy the dungeons immediately turned around to get ready.
Amidst the tense busyness in the front hall of the mansion, a small voice stopped them in their tracks.
"Father!" Vildan called from outside the room.
Victor, Vildan's biological father, immediately turned around. He looked down and gazed at his son's face closely.
"What is it, my son?" he asked in a gentle voice.
Vildan squeezed the hem of his own shirt. "Earlier, Uncle Kazien promised me that he would return here after his task of destroying all those dungeons. But... I am sure he will definitely be gone for a very long time."
The boy looked up, gazing at his father's face with a look that was beginning to be filled with anxiety.
"Are you and Mother... going to be gone for a long time too?"
Hearing the innocent question slip from the boy's mouth, it was not only Victor who froze stiff. Everyone around Vildan also turned to stone. Not a single one of them could find the right words to answer and guarantee their return to a little child.
They were about to face an extinction-level disaster. The incomprehensible monsters brought by the Evil God could snatch their lives in the blink of an eye.
Promising to return was a lie too cruel if it could not be kept.
Realizing that the expressions of all the adults around him had suddenly turned stiff, tense, and mute, Vildan, who inherited sharp intuition like Kazien, slowly understood. He realized that his family was heading to a very dangerous place, leaving him for an unknown amount of time.
The boy took a deep breath, swallowing his own fear.
"It's fine. You don't have to answer, I understand." the boy said, trying to force a smile on his small lips. "But, after all of you have successfully returned here, there is one thing I really want!"
Hearing that, Virena could not hold herself back. She approached her son.
"What do you want, Vildan? Tell Mother right now!" Virena asked, her chest feeling tight.
Vildan suddenly shook his head quickly.
"I don't want to! Later, when you all have truly returned, only then will I tell you. Hehehe." Vildan answered, wrapping his worries in a childish laugh. He deliberately delayed his request so his family would have a strong reason to return safely as soon as possible.
Despite being overwhelmed by deep curiosity and emotion, Virena could only comply with what her incredibly resilient son said.
"I will be looking forward to all of your return here!" the boy said again, this time with a very firm and strong tone, looking straight at his father and mother.
As a mother, Virena's defenses finally crumbled. She could no longer hold back her emotional turmoil, having to part ways and leave her son in the midst of a world on the brink of destruction.
The silvery-white-haired woman immediately dropped to her knees and hugged Vildan's small body very tightly, burying her face in her son's shoulder.
"We will all definitely return, darling. Mother promises you!" Virena whispered in a slightly hoarse voice, tightening her embrace.
Vildan returned his mother's hug and patted her back gently. "Yes, Mother. I will wait for you here."
Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of a dense wilderness on the Azvel Continent, one of Kazien's clone bodies was standing tall in front of a giant cave with Arken standing beside him.
The same went for two other locations separated by hundreds of kilometers.
In a rocky valley, another of Kazien's bodies stood side by side with Alvin. And by the edge of a river, another Kazien figure stood with Allen.
They all stood before the dungeons that emitted an incredibly dense and powerful mana.
Kazien took a deep breath, then exhaled it before finally turning to his three spouses.
"Let's go inside!" the three Kazien figures invited in unison in three different places.
"Yes, My Dear / My Love / My Huby!" Alvin, Allen, and Arken answered simultaneously in their respective locations, without the slightest hesitation.