Time passed and the two months remaining between the group's previous position and their arrival in Seidel Kingdom ended that afternoon.",

After passing through the Chutha Dynasty's border with their home state, the group continued on their way to Grandis, a city just two days' journey for Onyx.

The entire group was observing the landscapes while Onyx carried them on his back, seeing the situation of the territory of their home state from about 1 kilometer above sea level.

Signs of battles and fires could be seen from above, with even a few small monster camps within sight of where the group was passing.

As she saw these signs, Lina couldn't help but sigh, thinking about how her family might be.

'I hope everyone is okay. According to Lauren, the actions of the strongest monsters to the south of the continent should only have started about five months ago. I hope they're still enduring the crisis.' She thought to herself, as she surveyed the terrain of her state with an apathetic look on her beautiful face.

Meanwhile, no one in the group was meditating or busy with anything else. They were all observing the terrain on their way, curious to know how those they had left behind were doing.

Having been out of the state for over two years, they had missed out on many things, from the Fuller family's expansionist actions to even the fights against the monsters that must have taken place in the territory.

Had the train lines been extended? How was Metal City? What about Eve and Nina?

Each of them had different questions, with even Lauren and the woman on the same level as her curious to know how the place they would call home from now on was doing.

Lauren had progressed in her relationship with the group, still acting and thinking in a selfish and negative way, but more helpful, giving what information she had.

She was still at the same level as when she had been overpowered by Vicente at Nixlas' Shadows headquarters, not having had the chance to cultivate to become stronger since that time.

Vicente was at the middle of the level of a Low-level Paragon before, having grown since then and reached the end of it. But she hadn't changed at all, not having had the chance to cultivate.

This was the only case of a member of the group who hadn't grown stronger. Over the almost a year they had been traveling together, everyone, except for Lauren, had improved.

They had traveled, for most of the last year, through high-level locations where even High-level Paragons could cultivate without difficulty. As such, everyone had benefited, with Vicente coming close to advancing to Mid-level, something similar to what Torne had achieved.

Torne was privileged. As the only one who could cultivate within Vicente's powerful consciousness space, he had a cultivation speed close to that of his master. But he was still in the middle of the level of a Low-level Paragon, behind his master.

Onyx's situation was a little worse than Torne's, while the Low-level Paragon woman had improved little in the 6 months since she joined the group.

Meanwhile, all the group's 4th stage members had improved a lot, with Rory having reached the peak of 4th stage and the rest of the team at the middle of Sky Sovereign level.

Depending on the resources they had when the effect of the vampire blood wore off in a few more years, everyone in the group could dream of advancing to the 5th stage before Vicente left for the north again.

No one in the group thought he would be leaving for the north in at least three years, since not only was the kingdom too big for him to look after, but he also had Nina and Lauren to worry about.

Anyway, the group was much stronger than when they left the kingdom, so arriving in this state again, they couldn't help but be eager to help.

"What do we do first, Vice?" Rory asked his friend, anxious to check on his mother's condition.

"We'll stop by the capital first to find out the actual situation in the state. Depending on the news, we can split up to quickly reach our different posts." Vicente replied, still not so comfortable splitting up his group amid calamity.

On the way here, they had seen some monsters with 5th stage cultivation!

As they had already imagined, not every monster coming from the north would focus its actions entirely on the central area of the continent. Some went to that area to overthrow human territories and then advance south, but others specifically passed straight through the area without getting involved in fighting there.

Because of this, it wouldn't be strange to find monsters as strong as those they saw in Trevora Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Eternal Dawn in the Seidel Kingdom.

As Seidel Kingdom was the last state on the continent in the southeast area, they believed that the numbers of powerful monsters there would be small and sparse. Even so, Vicente preferred to be cautious.

"Let's find out what areas have been lost, the human numbers and the situation of the railroad lines in the kingdom. If the state has reached the brink of collapse, we'll reclaim the kingdom's land bit by bit, starting from Scott Province.

My initial aim is to ensure the safety of the family, strengthen the remaining railroad lines and Metal City, before reclaiming territories."

Rory nodded to Vicente, eager to go to Metal City, where he thought his mother should have gone after her many pieces of advice before the group left for the north.

With that said, the group would continue flying towards Grandis, the capital of Seidel Kingdom, where Nina, Eve, Nova and the royal family should be or have been until recently, at least.

The orders left by Vicente were for the family to leave when Grandis became untenable. But had that already happened?

In a few more hours of traveling to the southeast, the group would find the answer to that question!