The man with the scar smirked. "Come with us."
Right as the eye scar man finished, Damien erected an earth wall to separate him and Hyreona from the men.
He attempted to knock down one of them behind him to open an escape route, by hurling a summoned rock spike, but the man behind broke it by slashing it with a blade of wind.
BOOM—
"Just be quiet and come along with us." One man sneered.
He threw another slash at the wall, crumbling it. It went through the wall and cut Damien on the arm, causing him to bleed.
Then before he could recover, another man exploded a ball of fire right next to Hyreona.
Damien rushed over to cover her as quickly as possible, but they were both hit and were pushed back. Hyreona's back hit an earth wall that a man made.
BANG—
"Uagh..." both Hyreona and Damien groaned. Hyreona coughed out some silvery liquid.
Hyreona attempted to get up.
Her hand began to emit cold air and frost started to permeate the ground around the area, gradually lowering the temperature surrounding her.
CRACKLE— CRACK—
She was about to use her ice magic, but before she could output it, Damien weakly grabbed her ankle, and shook his head.
There was no use trying to fight back as the men were more experienced in combat. It would only make matters worse if they tried to retaliate any further.
"HA! I TOLD YOU PEOPLE! SHE IS AN ELEMENTAL! JUST LOOK AT HER BLOOD!"
The scarred man burst into a hysterical laugh.
He walked over and kicked Damien to the side, making him crash into another man who knocked him out.
He grabbed Hyreona by the neck, lifting her up.
"AURGH!" Hyreona struggled in his grip.
The man with the scar caressed the side of her face with his free hand.
He wiped a droplet of silvery blood that was running down her cheek with his finger and put it in his mouth.
"Look at what a pretty little thing we have here..." he said while licking his lips.
He turned around to look at the other men and commanded "Let's go. The head mage is waiting for us."
The man then pointed at Damien.
"Bind up the boy and bring him too."
The men crudely tied up Damien and dragged him along, all heading towards a gloomy looking tower near the palace grounds.
Hyreona was hit on the back of her neck, causing her to become unconscious and was slung over the scarred man's shoulder before they all disappeared into a dark alley.
Leaving behind the scene and a lone piece of white hair.
—————————————————————
"CALL FOR ALDWIN!" Edmond shouted at a random knight.
"Y-yes your highness!" The knight stammered nervously and ran straight to the palace barracks.
Edmond was furious. Aldwin arrived at the scene about 5 minutes later, wondering what was so urgent that required him to personally come.
"Aldwin, go and find Hyreona." Edmond said in a cold tone.
Aldwin bowed and left. "As you wish your highness."
After leaving, Aldwin scanned around the area, looking for any traces of both Damien and Hyreona.
While walking past an alley, a glare from something shiny caught his eye.
He made his way towards the object only to find that it seemed to be a long strand of white-blue hair. Aldwin picked it up and looked into the dark alley, knowing that the strand of hair he held belonged to Hyreona.
He pocketed the strand then immediately rushed into the alley, whilst carefully observing the ground and walls of the place.
At the end of it, he found a solid tall wall. Aldwin ran his hand over the wall to see if there were any hidden mechanisms inside of it.
There wasn't any, so he decided to instead shatter the wall with a shadow sphere. Behind it, hidden underneath some rubble, was a spell circle.
Discerning the circle, he was able to recognize the patterns written in it. Aldwin threw another sphere, aiming at the circle, now rendering it useless.
'It must have been those damn aristocratic mages.'
In the nobility, there are two opposing factions: the Aristocratic party and the Traditional party.
Aristocratic sought for more power to the high ranking nobles whereas Traditional wanted to keep the king at the top.
It could be said that the Aristocratic party was a radical one. They often dared to do cruel and heinous acts towards the common people.
They were even known for kidnapping those with a potential to become elementals or those with abnormal mana reserves to experiment on.
Members of that party also attempted to kidnap Aldwin when he was newly admitted to the Crown Prince, under the pretenses that he has high potential to become a great mage.
The Aristocratic party has another lesser known name: the Consort's Right Wing.
Informing Edmond, they made a beeline towards the Aristocratic's magic tower.
—————————————————————
At the magic tower, both Hyreona and Damien were tied up on the top floor.
Looking down on them was the Head Mage, Laceris.
He was the world's equivalent of a mad scientist. He would not bat an eye to the use of children's in his experiments, instead, he actually enjoyed the noise of their suffering.
The more the experiments struggled, screamed, or fought back, the more pleased he became.
In his mind, all of these showed some sort of result in his testings.
Hyreona and Damien were haphazardly tossed into a corner of the testing room.
Damien was the first to wake up, groaning.
"Uggh..."
Hearing him wake, Laceris turned around. He revealed an eerie smile.
"Oh! Oh! I see you have woken up! I was just about to do it myself."
"WHO ARE YOU? WHERE AM I?!" Damien shouted.
Damien attempted to create an earth spike, but it was futile. A magic suppressor was around his neck.
Laceris clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"A little yeller aren't you?"
The Head Mage walked over and grabbed Damien by his hair. He dragged him over the table where he was standing next to previously.
Damien shouted and kicked for the mage to let go, but he was tied up so Laceris didn't bat an eye.
The shouting from Damien eventually woke Hyreona.
With Damien in his grip, Laceris turned around again with an ecstatic expression this time.
"Our pretty little elemental has woken up!"
The first thing Hyreona saw was Damien struggling.
"LET HIM GO! LET DAMIEN GO!" she screamed.
"Oh this thing?" Laceris raised Damien up, still holding on to his hair.
"He seems a little feisty..." he smiled.
CRASH—
Laceris then shoved Damien's face into the table, causing Damien to scream as blood dripped out of his nose.
"STOP IT! STOP!" Hyreona cried.
The ground around her began to be covered in a layer of slowly spreading frost.
Laceris raised an eyebrow looking at the frost.
"Oh...? It seems as though the suppressor doesn't work on elementals..."
He let go of Damien, dropping him on the floor.
Laceris came in front of Hyreona, grabbing and lifting her by her neck. He saw that his hand that was touching her was also being covered in frost.
Laceris grinned widely. With his other hand, he summoned a ball of metal.
Using it, he stabbed Hyreona in her stomach, making her spill silvery blood into a bucket below her.
"AAAAGGRRH!" Hyreona wailed.
Damien, who was crumpled on the floor witnessed Hyreona being wounded.
He slowly struggled to stand up and then rushed at Laceris, knocking into him. Laceris' grip on Hyreona slipped, causing her to fall, and knocking the bucket over.
"No... NO... my precious blood!"
Laceris turned and glared Damien with red eyes.
"HOW. DARE. YOU."
He kicked Damien, leading him to crash into a wall.
"This was a once in a life time chance... AND YOU RUINED IT. All of this precious blood... gone to WASTE!"
Laceris kept kicking Damien while he was curled up in a ball.
Once Laceris vented his anger on Damien, he went back to the pool of blood to recollect it.
Damien was now covered in blood and bruises, with several broken bones.
While Laceris was busy, Hyreona weakly inched towards Damien, leaving a trail of silver behind her.
She slowly lifted her hand and placed it below his nose to see if Damien was still breathing.
Right as she did that, Laceris turned back around. He walked over and grabbed her ankle dragging her along with him to the table.
Hyreona tried to fight back.
"Let... me go you... piece of trash..." she said quietly.
Laceris laughed.
"How could I? Letting go of an elemental... what am I? Stupid?"
He gazed over to Damien's body. "Tsk, tsk. That boy has given me a lot of trouble."
He summoned another ball of metal, preparing to shoot it into Damien.
Seeing what Laceris was going to do, Hyreona screamed loudly.
"NO! STOP—"
She stretched her arm out towards Laceris and desperately yelled.
"[Frozen World]!"
Before Laceris was able to throw it at Damien, frost and ice suddenly expanded rapidly from the ground.
The entire tower was covered in a thick layer of frost in less than half a second along with spikes of ice piercing through the walls, floors, and people.
Laceris stood frozen, he was stabbed by a large spike. He looked down, seeing it through his body as drops of red blood flowed from his mouth and wound.
It slowly created a pool underneath him.
He laughed manically.
"Haha... HAHAHAA..." Then his entire body drooped down.
Laceris' arm with the metal ball dropped. The ball hit the ice-coated floor with a loud crash.
BANG— CRACK—
Hyreona made her way back to the unconscious Damien.
She took his body into her arms hugging it. She placed her lips against his forehead and breathed into Damien the last of her mana reserve, allowing him to not feel pain for a time.
Using the wall for support, she stood up with Damien's arm over her shoulder then clumsily walked towards the stairs.
Along the way, she tumbled several times and coughed out blood due to her stab wound.
Eventually, she was able to get to the ground floor of the tower before collapsing and passing out just short of the entrance. Everyone else occupying the tower were either killed by a spike or frozen over.
Not long after, the entrance was busted through by Edmond with his knights and Aldwin at his side.
—————————————————————
On the way to the Aristocratic Magic Tower, both Aldwin and Edmond heard a faint scream coming from the direction they were heading in.
When they were three-fourths along the path to the tower, the entire building suddenly froze over with spikes made of ice penetrating the walls of it.
Even the commoners and nobles who were out about their daily lives, stopped and stared at the tower. This sight made both boys increase their pace.
Once they reached the entrance, Aldwin destroyed the grand-looking door. What they saw behind it shocked them.
The mages in that floor were all dead.
Stabbed or encased in a block of ice, none were left alive. In the middle of the room, laid Hyreona and Damien, both bleeding out on the floor. Hyreona had her arm stretched towards the door.
Aldwin and Edmond looked at each other, shocked. Edmond asked in a small voice "What... happened here...?"