Present Time

       Jaejoong watched from afar, as Junki and Bae Yong Jun became bound to his children before he flew away from Junki's London apartment. His next move now was to find the demon who forced Dara to kill herself. Yabu flew beside him and perched on his shoulder.

       "Where are the other Finders?" Jaejoong asked.

       "Most of them are looking for Yang Hyun Suk. Albright and Onyx are currently recruiting a new Finder. We need one to replace Argo as soon as possible. Our teleportation magic doesn't work if our number is not exactly one hundred."

       Jaejoong knew about the long and hard process that a Siesmyre would have to go through in order to become a Finder. But that process would be speeded up because of the situation.

       "Have they found the demon?"

       Yabu shook his head. He was connected mentally to all the other members of the Finder Unit.

       "The demon and his human body have disappeared."

       "I thought Finders are capable of finding anything and everyone regardless of whether they use their powers of invisibility."

       "The powers of invisibility never affected a Finder since despite being invisible, the user would still leave traces. But this demon, Yang Hyun Suk... The trace of his presence simply stopped."

       "Where did you guys locate the last trace of him?"

       "At the edge of Waipoua Forest."

       It didn't escape Jaejoong that Waipoua Forest was the place where Dara died. He never thought he would be going there so soon. He took a deep breath.

       "Maybe we should start in the place where Dara...made her last stand."

       Yabu flew ahead of him. It was clear they were heading to the nearest Sanctuary. Using the Sanctuary would save them some time. London and New Zealand were not exactly near each other.

       Jaejoong stayed close to Yabu as they navigated the maze‑like pathways of the Sanctuary. They emerged near a beach, several miles from the forest. As they made their way to the Waipoua Forest, Jaejoong noticed that Yabu was not his usual talkative self. He, like most of the Siesmyres, was still in mourning. Everyone was trying his best to remain strong. Dara was not just respected by the Siesmyres, she was also well loved.

       They finally came to the place where Dara last fought the demon. There were a lot of sage bushes in the area. If Jaejoong remembered right, humans believed that sage ward of demons. But he never once thought that there's a plantation of sage bushes near the Waipoua Forest.

       "Was Dara responsible for these sages?"

       "When she was fighting the demon, he ordered several of us to plant sage plants in this area. The moment we transported her and the demon in this place, she used her powers to quickly make the sage plants grow and multiply."

       A bittersweet memory came to Jaejoong's mind. Dara had once transformed the inside of their house into a tropical forest just to trick him into going to Ireland. He became so angry with her yet at the same time fascinated since it was also during that time that she brazenly took off her clothes in front of him.

       But the sage bushes weren't the only ones that caught Jaejoong's attention. Most of the plants and trees around them were flowering! Flowers usually bloomed in unison during spring, but it was already July.

       "The flowers..."

       "Are nature's own way of saying goodbye to Dara," explained Yabu in a grave voice.

       Jaejoong steeled himself. This wasn't the time to mourn. And he had no reason to mourn. Dara wasn't technically dead. She just changed form.

       "And where did she..."

       Yabu pointed to a circular clearing among the sage bushes. The soil was blackened on that spot.

       Jaejoong found himself walking toward the blackened clearing. He kneeled and touched the ground. When he was still an apprentice for Lightside, he was taught a thousand prayers. Each one for all the times humans needed a prayer. But none of these prayers seemed proper enough for his wife. Dara would laugh at him if she saw him praying to her dust.

       In fact, Dara could be watching him right now. Jaejoong looked up into the skies.

       "I'll finish your fight first and avenge you before I'll come see you," he promised. "You certainly want that demon destroyed first, wouldn't you?"

       He was about to stand when he felt something pushing against his hand on the ground. He took his hand away and saw a small green sprout growing from the blackened soil. The sprout continued growing!

       Jaejoong stood and backed away.

       "Yabu, what is happening?"

       "That always happened whenever one of Dara's kinds dies. A tree always grows where they disappeared. It's like a memorial for them."

       "And does this tree always grow this fast?" The sprout had now reached Jaejoong's waist. It had now begun to branch out and produce numerous leaves.

       "Yes, so that no animal or human could trample it. The memorial trees often copy the strongest and most ancient trees around them. Since we are near Waipoua Forest, Dara's memorial tree would probably be a Kauri tree. Her memorial tree would become the biggest tree in the forest. It might even breach the usually sixty feet height normal Kauri trees reach.

       Jaejoong felt a need to hug the young tree. But that would make him look so stupid. He simply touched the bark of the rapidly growing tree.

       "Be strong," he murmured to the tree before turning to Yabu. "Let's continue tracing this demon."

       Yabu led the way until they reached the spot where the demon's trace disappeared. A long highway that would take them to the nearest city lay before them.

       "If we were tracking a human, I would say, he hitched a ride."

       "He was using a human body."

       Jaejoong was perplexed. Even if a demon possessed a human body, he wouldn't be able to hide his demon aura from the Finders. Demons could blend among humans without the humans noticing anything out of the ordinary. But Finders would notice and so would angels and demons.

       Unless, Yang Hyun Suk was able to turn himself into a real human. If that were the case, then no trace of his demon aura could be seen or felt.

       It was clear, Yang Hyun Suk was no ordinary demon. Maybe it's about time Jaejoong informed Midnight about him.

       Jaejoong grimaced. To do that, he would have to talk to Junki. And Junki as of this moment was probably not in the mood to talk or see him. Junki had probably figured out by now that Blue was Jaejoong's child and