<Shaman POV>
At the front of the palace, we all sat on the stairs leading to the front door, watching my father examine the barrier. We had no idea what he was doing, leaving even my mother clueless.
"So what other companions are you travelling with?" Since there was nothing else to do, my mother asked more questions to pass the time.
"Currently, we have Himeko travelling with us as Klaus destroyed the city she ruled over." Remembering back to when we came out of the dungeon, I have never felt closer to death than that time, when he was mere inches away from discovering us. Even the dungeon itself left me with mental scars, leaving me with some bitter memories of the lost city.
"Good to hear that she is okay." My mother's face looked relieved, as she still had at least one friend alive.
"Mhm, we also got the princess of Elfhiem Elanor with us. We had quite an ordeal involving the royal elf family and ultimately Elanor decided to travel with us." It was certainly an interesting time, as it was also when Clara joined our relationship.
"That's quite the party you got—daughter of the vampiric foxes, elf and demon princess. Anyone else?" My mother saying it out loud made it sound like I was collecting royalty from all over the continent.
"There are two more and one of them joined us recently for this mission. Her name is Luna, a half-demon cat girl who is our support specialist. She probably has the most normal origins out of everyone." Luna was easy to introduce, but whether she would be a permanent addition is still up in the air.
'Oh god, how do I introduce Silver.' I didn't want to say outright that I have a son since I knew that would freak my mother out. By all accounts, he was my son, but it wasn't by any natural means.
"As for the last one... I don't know how to introduce him properly." I glanced over to Elysia, but she instantly turned her head away, refusing to bail me out. If anything, it's probably better she keeps to herself before she creates any further misunderstanding.
"This better not be a boyfriend as well." My mother already assumed the worst, which made me panic.
"No, no, no, no, nothing like that. To put it simply, I have a son named Silver, but only because I dripped some blood onto his egg to create a familial bond." I urgently spoke, as I didn't want my mother to conjure up any more wrong ideas.
"I... Have a lot of questions." I could see on her face that she was trying hard not to scream.
"Uhhh, well it's kind of a long story, but technically, you have a grandkid now... You'll understand when you see him." If Silver were still his young self, he would be easier to introduce, but as things stand it would be hard to explain how he evolved his way into adulthood.
"You are honestly full of surprises, honey. I hope there isn't anything else... Otherwise, I think my heart will fail me."
"Please just work." It was our only option, so I swallowed my worries and began to overload the markings. The cracks appeared again in the barrier, so Elysia prepared a punch packed full of her mana.
Blood flames swirled around her fist, the mana so palpable I could feel it pouring into this punch. After a couple of minutes, Elysia finally threw the punch into the crack.
As her fist made contact, a burst of flames shot out, enlarging the crack in the barrier a fair margin. Still, she ran into some kind of resistance as if something was pushing back her fist. She didn't let, continually adding more and more power to her fist.
My father quickly backed away, cautious of the stray flames that were blowing all over the place.
However, just as Elysia was making some progress, lightning surged towards her hand from the barrier, as if retaliating against her attempts. Forced back by the pain, Elysia quickly retreated once she noticed that another strike was forming.
I also quickly backed up, as I didn't want to be caught in the second lightning strike.
"Are you okay? Nothing weird happening to your body?" Being a safe distance away from the barrier, I quickly examined Elysia's hand to see if it had suffered any severe damage. Between the time stasis and this unique barrier, I was concerned taking damage here could cause some side effects.
"I'm fine, my flames should be able to heal it." Elysia pulled her hand away to coat it in her red flames.
"Looks like we'll need to do that a couple of times." My father was already back to inspecting the barrier, not showing any concern.
"Jeez, you could show some worry, dear." My mother had walked over to Elyisa and, despite the flames on her hand, still grabbed it to have a look.
"U-umm I'm o-okay." Elysia didn't know how to react to my mother suddenly grabbing her hand.
"Hmm, if you say so." My mother gave it a closer look, confirming the flames did a good job at healing. With Elysia all good, I turned my attention to the barrier, which wasn't healing the crack right away.
"Perhaps instead of brute force, we could use a more precise attack now?" I didn't want to put Elysia in danger, so I figured a strike with my Kotetsu might do the trick.
"Possibly, just need to be careful of the failsafe electrocuting you." My father was lost in thought. thinking up who knows what.
"Yes, that might work. Shaman, show me your best attack on this barrier."