The queen twisted her blue hair around one of her fingers as Pops gradually jumped on the roof of their house to be by her side.

"I am terribly sorry, citizens. As an apology for making such a mess, I shall repair your house completely free of charge."

Jacob looked up at the woman.

"... so, you’re the queen of this kingdom? And how long will these repairs take? Should we house ourselves somewhere else for now?"

"A pleasure to meet you. And if you all stand back, I’ll have the repairs completed right now."

"What are you-"

Before Jacob could finish his sentence, the queen pointed her emerald staff at the rubble. A loud reverberation sounded through the air as a green beam shot towards the wreckage of the battlefield. Thousands of splintered pieces from the damaged buildings around them started coming back together and repairing instantly, looking as if nothing destroyed them in the first place.

Soon enough, even their own house was restored to its previous state. Jacob looked at the staff with a strange sense of relief.

’So, it isn’t a staff of ultimate destruction after all... in fact, it seems to do the opposite, thankfully.’

As the scene continued to unfold, Zoey felt something poking her in her armor. She reached down into it and pulled out a pair of glasses. The lenses looked partially damaged, but they appeared to be in decent shape for her using her power at such a high capacity. She grabbed both ends and slid the glasses on her face, looking up at the Queen. Her face dropped and her heart started racing as text slowly appeared next to her.

Serena noticed her strange behavior but decided it would be best no to make a scene in front of the ruler of the kingdom.

After everything was completely restored, the queen sat her staff down by her side. Pops was by her knees, kneeling down waiting to address her.

"My Queen, what should we do about Slimo? Should we kill him or turn him in?"

The Queen appeared to be lost in thought for a moment.

"Keep him alive. I already made sure he would never leave my sight with the assignment I have him, just in case he got any funny ideas. Besides, there’s no way he can escape this kingdom without my permission. He is at our mercy for all of eternity as far as I am aware!"

Pops threw his head further towards the ground.

"Your mercy truly knows no bounds, my Queen!!"

The Queen laughed lightly seeing the strange reaction from her jester.

"Let’s walk back to the palace now."

The Queen looked over the large group of people.

"I am sure this won’t be the last time we meet. We aren’t exactly a large kingdom, after all. Goodbye!"

With that, the Queen and her jester made their way back towards the palace. Zoey was still stuck looking at the spot where they had left in shock. Serena shook her out of it and looked into her dark red eyes with curiosity.

"What’s the matter, Zoey? You seem to be out of it."

Zoey feverishly looked around at everyone through the lenses of the glasses. After her eyes fell on Jacob, she finally passed out. Serena was able to catch her in time before she hit the ground.

"She must have over-exerted her power in the small battle. I’ll make sure she gets back to her room safely. Should we go after Maria or Harold? Maybe help them if they need it?"

Jacob rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"They will be okay. Something tells me that the only way we’ll see Lidia or Slimo ever again is if they are together."

"Why do you say that?"

Jacob rubbed his head embarrassingly.

"Just... and intuition I’ve been having lately. But I’m probably very wrong."

Suddenly, a shriek came from Sydney.

"Are you trying to say they’re... a thing?!"

"Well... I’m just saying it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Don’t put words in my mouth!"

For some reason, Bo seemed to have the most dramatic reaction out of everyone. He simply started screaming and rubbing his head while rolling on the ground. Jacob looked at him and put his hands up.

"I was only kidding around! I have no proof they are actually a thing!"

Bo had small tears streaming down his cheeks as he hugged his knees. He started muttering to himself on the ground silently.

"... I’ve seen things. Things no person should be allowed to see..."

"What? I can’t hear you when you speak so quietly."

Garbriel walked over to him and helped him up.

"Geez. What is going on today? First the strange incident at the school, the queen of the kingdom herself paid us a visit, Pops is actually a crazy killer and Slimo is the prince of an entire empire?! What’s next? We’re going to befriend some wizard?!"

Sarah coughed into her hand hearing Jacob’s last comment. Jacob looked at her dubiously.

"You have to be joking..."

"It just kind of happened. Sorry, Jacob."

Jacob rubbed his head and looked away from the group, pacing around a small spot on the stone street.

"Let’s all just go back inside and call it a day. Unless you all feel like training a bit. What do you all think?"

By the time he turned around, the only people left standing were Sarah and Gabriel. Sarah scratched her arm embarrassingly.

"They all ran away as soon as you mentioned training. I think they’ve had enough of today and want to relax a bit."

"...but you both stayed?"

Gabriel took a step forward. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I want to get stronger. For everyone. I need to."

A small grin appeared on Jacob’s face.

"And you want that too, Sarah? I thought you weren’t a fighter?"

Sarah looked away.

"Well, I am not a fighter, but I at least want to know how to protect myself if the need arises! I don’t want to burden anyone with protecting me."

Jacob shook his head.

"Very well. I hope you all like pushing your body to its limits, because the first thing we will be doing is strength training!"

"Strength training? What kind of strength training were you thinking?"

"Gabriel, turn as small as you can."

"Okay, I can try."

Gabriel turned as small as an ant. Jacob was just able to see his full body on the ground.

"Great! Now catch me!"

"What-"

Jacob jumped into the air and landed directly on to where Gabriel had turned small. Instead of being crushed, Gabriel was lifting Jacob into the air with his miniature arms. Since he kept his normal strength no matter what size he was, carrying Jacob wasn’t initially awful for him.

"I didn’t squash you, did I?"

"How exactly is this supposed to help?"

"I just wanted to test the waters."

Jacob walked off Gabriel and gestured for Sarah to walk on top of him next.

"... you want me to stand on top of Gabriel?"

"Just do it."

Sarah sat on Gabriel and stood straight up.

"How is this a challenge for me?"

"We are going to expedite your learning process a bit. Hold out your arms so I can jump in them."

"You want me to carry you?!"

Nobody could see it but hearing that Jacob was going to be added to the weight made Gabriel nervous since he would be carrying them both.

"Yup! Now hold out your arms!"

Sarah held out her arms slowly, allowing Jacob to lay in them.

"Would you prefer I stay on your back?"

"... yes. This is embarrassing."

Jacob laughed and climbed on her back instead.

"Now what do we do?"

"Alright. Garbiel, you will carry us around this entire kingdom! Sarah, you will constantly be using your power to make your head intangible."

"One lap? I should be able to do that."

Jacob laughed.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? You aren’t doing one lap... you’re doing ten."