Alex gave a smile before he spoke.

"I don't care what they want as long as I get my daughter back in one piece."

"yeah... Okay I'll do it."

Alex's face lit up in happiness right before he nearly let out tears of joy, Mars gave a sigh and said.

"Save those tears for when I return with your daughter... Now tell me the details, where was this bandit group last spotted, how many of them are there? and most importantly how do you plan to compensate me?"

After ironing out the boring details Mars and the group entered the city and found an inn to stay at, then Mars left the city alone to rescue the mayor's daughter. Once he walked out of the gates he quickly ran into a problem as a group of knights surrounded him, Mars put a hand on the hilt of his sword before he asked.

"What?"

One knight removed his helmet and spoke in an arrogant tone.

"Rejoice mercenary for we have been told to follow you into battle against the vile thugs that have taken miss Emma hostage."

Mars thought for a moment before he gave a sigh and removed the hand from the hilt of his sword.

"Fine those of you that are able to follow me may..."

With those words Mars slowly lifted off the ground, as he began flying towards the sky leaving the knights dumbfounded as they looked up after him before eventually Mars disappeared  beyond the clouds. Now in the air Mars took his flight googles out of his pocket and put them on before he began flying south with his top speed, soon a sonic boom was heard over the capital of the former empire, this scared and confused some of the inhabitants but bedsides a small article in a local newspaper nothing was done about it...

A few hours after Mars left the city he began to slow down and dropped down below the clouds, and had already arrived in the area where the bandits were last seen. Below him was a small village when he looked down Mars slightly narrowed his eyes before he said.

"Bingo"

Mars flew down to the village that was currently being pillaged by a group of about 10 bandits, he unsheathed his sword as he flew down close to the ground and canceled his flying skill before he walked into the village and sent a sword light flying which decapitated one of the bandits. This got the rests of the bandit's attention as one of them let go of the villager he was tormenting and yelled.

"Get him!"

5 or so bandits stormed Mars that calmly walked forwards with his sword unsheathed, the process was swift and soon the bandits were fleeing. Without even talking to the villagers Mars once again took flight and followed the fleeing bandits hoping they would lead him to the rest of their group. Just as he had hoped after following them for almost an hour they entered a forest where Mars could see a lot of activity from above, Mars landed and followed after the bandits on foot and soon he hid behind a tree and peeked out.

'One, two, three sentries... This will be easy.'

Mars spotted three sentries at what looked like a makes.h.i.+ft gate where the fleeing bandits just pa.s.sed though. Mars took a deep breath and activated [Instant movement] before he disappeared from view and reappeared in front of the gate at the same time the three sentries collapsed. They were all dead, Mars walked past the gate and soon he had made it somewhat far into the encampment but then he was spotted and the bandits began running at him in doves, The living G.o.d gave a sigh and sent out sword light after sword light that cut the bandits to pieces as he slowly walked forwards further into the encampment while giving a yawn. Soon a bandit appeared that looked like the boss, he was holding a teenage girl in his hands and held a sword up to her throat as he yelled at Mars.

"Stop right there!"

Mars did as he was asked and stopped walking and looked at the girl, she had the same hair color as Alex but he still asked to be sure.

"Are you Emma?"

The girls eyes lit up and so Mars gave a smile and said.

"Don't worry I will bring you back to your father Alex."

"Hey don't you dare ignore m---"

It happened in an instant. The head of the bandit boss exploded as it did Mars' pupils shuck to the size of pinholes as he quickly activated [Half-awaken] and dodged to the side as a bullet flew right past his head with supersonic speed and buried itself into a bandit that was standing behind him. Mars activated [Instant movement] and disappeared from view as a hail of bullets flew down and killed every bandit in sight, then he reappeared next to Emma and swept her off her feet as he carried her and quickly took flight disappearing beyond the clouds in an instant... After a while a group of dwarfs appeared in the clearing, they were carrying guns with sound suppressors on and were dressed in camouflage gear.

"Primary target not in sight..."

"d.a.m.n it.... who, what was that, it dodged my bullet!"

One of the dwarfs looked over the bodies again before he gave a sigh. 

"Anyway it got the primary target, let's get out of here before beasts come."

""""Yes captain.""""

Mars flew above the clouds, he was on the way back towards the city with Emma that had fainted in his arms. Mars had never seen anything like what happened in the clearing, he was just happy that the group of dwarfs had mistimed their firing else he might have died.

"Never seen anything like it.... d.a.m.n it was sloppy work, that first shot was just too poorly timed and the follow ups might as well have been half a minute later... Whoever trained those soldiers how to use guns should be ashamed."

As Mars grumbled Emma slowly awoke and looked around, when she realized she was flying she momentarily panicked and struggled to get free. Luckily for her Mars had a firm grip on her so she didn't fall, when she stopped Mars asked her.

"Have you calmed down princess?"

Emma blushed from being called princess but still managed to apologize. 

"...Yes, sorry about that, where are we at the moment?"

"On the way back to your father, we are about half an hour out."

"Okay... I never got your name."

"My name is Mars, I'm a mercenary your father hired."

"I see... Mars can I ask you a favor?"

"What is it princess?"

Emma blushed again and kept silent for a moment before she asked.

"Can you fly below the clouds? I want to see the landscape."

"...Sure, but before that..."

Mars s.h.i.+fted Emma over so he held her in one hand before he fished out an extra pair of flight goggles.

"You better put theses on."

"Okay..."

Emma put on the flight goggles and then Mars began lowering the alt.i.tude and soon the two of them was below the clouds, Emma let out a sigh of admiration as she looked at the landscape below before she muttered.

"I don't think I will ever forget this view... Thank you Mars."

"You are very welcome princess Emma."

After half an hour of flight the city appeared in the distance and even though Emma looked a little sad that their flight was over, but she didn't complain when Mars flew into the city and landed right in front of the lord's manor. Mars put down Emma and walked together with her into the manor, as soon as they stepped inside Alex came running down the stairs and hugged his daughter tight for a few minutes before he turned to Mars.

"Thank you Mars, I am forever in you debt."

Mars gave a smile.

"Well as long as you pay me what we agreed on we will be even."

"Yes come with me up to my office and I will pay you."

"First there is something I should mention, I had a run in with the earthen tribe."

Suddenly the smile disappeared on Alex's face, then he kissed his daughter on her forehead and told her.

"Return to your room, I have to talk with Mars in private."

"Yes dad."

Emma took one last glance at Mars before she walked away, Mars and Alex walked up to his office where Alex shut the door and offered Mars a seat. After Mars sat down and so did Alex and for sometime Alex stared into the floor before he began talking.

"Truth is the earthen tribe have approached me several times in trying to buy this city and the surrounding land."

Mars narrowed his eyes slightly before he asked.

"Do you think they had a hand in the kidnapping?"

"...Yes."

Mars leaned back on the couch and thought for a few minutes before he said.

"Well I will be staying in the city for about a week more, if anything comes up you are welcome to contact me."

"...Thanks Mars, I appreciate it."