"There you are. Took you long en…" yelled Reeve before he realized that there were three people instead of two.
"We need to leave now", replied Riza, as she took off her mask and threw it into the carriage. She quickly climbed up, before Soren climbed the carriage from the back. Only Red Crow remained standing.
"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Riza.
Red Crow chuckled, before throwing a purse towards Riza. "We'll meet again soon. Take care of him, and make sure he stays alive. I'll be following you from a distance. If you get him killed, I'll kill you as well. Safe journey."
"Huh? What do I look like? His maid?" asked Riza, as she glared at Red Crow.
"It doesn't matter. That money should be enough to get you some supplies. What you do from now on isn't my problem, but like I said earlier, keep him safe!" Red Crow said this pointing at Soren. After saying that, Red Crow vanished into the darkness.
Riza took the reigns and drove the carriage like mad.
"What happened back then?" asked Reeve, curiously.
"Apparently Sky City has a new governor, and he didn't like the old one", replied Riza, as she drove the carriage.
"Eh? What does that have to do with the banquet?"
"You still don't get it? Lord Severin, the person holding the banquet, planned a hostile take over of Sky City. The banquet was simply a front he used to kill …" she paused, looking at Soren, who was now sniffing and whimpering. "Anyway, if I hadn't been there earlier, he would be dead too."
"And who was the stranger wearing the black uniform?"
"They called themselves Red Crow. I don't know if that was a he or a she. However, they saved us from the soldiers."
It was then that Eskaria coughed. Reeve scrambled to help her.
"W-where … am ... I?" she asked as she came to.
"Don't worry. You're quite safe now", assured Reeve.
"I think you're saying that too early. It appears we are being chased", spoke Soren, as he noticed a cloud rising from the back.
Soon, the cloud of dust turned into a visible army of soldiers wearing leather armor. Riza turned to see who was following, and her eyes narrowed. She exclaimed, "Eh? Regorius?"
"Huh? Who's Regorius?" asked Reeve.
"The guy with the giant axe in the back who's leading the soldiers", replied Soren.
"Oh…" was the only reply that could come out of Reeve's mouth. If he was alone, he would have stopped the carriage and fought them. He was undead, so he was sure in the end he would win. Now, while moving around with living people was good, it didn't help when they could die at any moment.
"What do we do now?" asked Soren.
The soldiers were now gaining on them. They were moving quite faster with their horses. It was evident that they could catch up to the carriage sooner rather than later.
Reeve tried to think of a solution. Of course, what he didn't notice was that Eskaria's eyes were glowing with a purple hue. He also didn't notice that Soren's eyes were glowing with a fiery, orange glow. Riza didn't even focus on what was happening at the back. She was too busy trying to make sure they escaped from the soldiers alive. From the way the distance between the carriage and the soldiers was now increasing, one could say it was working.
Of course, that's because one wouldn't know what was really going on. The reason the distance increased was because Regorius started seeing the carriage vanish. Well, it wasn't just him. All the soldiers started seeing the carriage that was in front of them vanish into thin air. They decreased their speed, since it appeared as if they were simply rushing forward.
"Umm, Regorius, what just happened?" asked the man who was beside him.
"I don't know what kind of trickery this is!" replied Regorius, as the speed of his horse dropped to a trot.
"Do you think it's advanced magic?" asked another.
"That's ridiculous. They would have used that back then …" he didn't get to finish that statement. His armor spontaneously combusted, and he fell off his horse. The entire crew had to stop and try to put the fire out.
Meanwhile, the glow in Eskaria's eyes faded as if it was never there. She was sweating profusely, before she fainted.
"Eskaria, hey wake up… Why are you sweating all of a sudden?" Reeve tried to wake her up by shaking her. Nope, it didn't work at all.
When he glanced at Soren, he saw his eyes glowing with a fiery color. "Hey, Soren … Are you okay?" he asked. Besides the glowing eyes, he also noticed that they had lost their pursuers, and that wasn't just it. He could see the small light particles all around the carriage. Some were orange in color, while most of them were purple.
'Something weird is going on', he thought.
Soren turned, with his eyes still glowing. However, wherever his gaze reached, flames would suddenly pop up. At first, it was the trees which were surrounding them, and then Riza's butler uniform caught fire too.
"Damn it!" swore Reeve. "Son of a --" he didn't get to finish the statement, as the wheel of the carriage hit a stone, causing them all to be thrown up like a sack of potatoes. Riza's uniform was on fire, the forest was on fire, and the carriage was going out of control. That wasn't the problem.
"Is this what an awakening is like? But why now???" Reeve wondered aloud. They didn't need this type of awakening that would set everything ablaze.
The carriage veered from the road, before Riza jumped off to the side. She rolled around in the grass in order to put off the fire. While Riza was putting the fire on her uniform out, the wheel of the carriage suddenly struck a stump, before coming off completely. The carriage ended up moving on its axel, before overturning. All the passengers were thrown out of the out-of-control carriage.