STAGE TEN: THE SECRET OF THE AETHELMAER MANOR
Fifteen years ago, they stood before the very same gates of the Aethelmaer mansion. It was exactly the same gate they desperately tried to reach, to escape. It was the gate that Freyja has never reached after fighting Aneurin. She always knew her return was inevitable.
Right of the bat, around twenty human soldiers greeted them, in full armor. They were like puppets, infused with dark aura that would have been impossible for a normal human to contain. The soldiers mindlessly attacked them the moment they stepped past the gates.
"Step back, I'll handle this!" Alaric cried, urging them to go forward while he summon a wide-range freezing spell. Hail started to fall from the sky, the runemaster directed them towards the soldiers who are starting to freeze solid in place as the ice crept up their feet from the ground. The hailstones froze their limbs upon contact, and soon, rendering all twenty immobile like statues. "The aura should melt it in a few minutes, let's go." Alaric ran further, not wanting to waste his aura on mere underlings.
The closer they got to the mansion, the more and the stronger the aura infused soldiers that attacked them were. They haven't even reached the main house, and yet, they're already getting tired. Freyja turned her back and summoned Afra, his barrier sweeping all the soldiers going after them in an instant. Freyja didn't want to use her aura before engaging Ahrin, but she had to help.
However, what surprised them was, the moment she called upon her celestial aura, Freyja felt something strike her inside. It was like a bolt of lightning. She could even feel her guardians react from within the medallion. "Ugh!" She groaned, falling down the ground, but standing right up in a second. "What the hell was that!?" She looked around.
"Lenfiare, something is reacting with your aura!" Alyon guessed, looking around. "Be careful."
Even before the soldiers pursuing them could catch up, they headed inside the mansion, and shut the doors tight with Alaric's rune ice wall. Surprisingly, the once busy Aethelmaer mansion full of servants and guards is now dark and empty.
"Let's hurry and find Ahrin." Kirin said, leading the way. He can only think of three places where his brother is hiding.
One, Aneurin's study in the third floor, where he held audiences and kept all his documents.
They rushed up to the room, but he wasn't there, and the documents were all scattered on the floor. It looked as if someone barged in there and made a mess of the entire place.
Two, Ahrin's bedroom in the second floor, where he kept most of his personal.
They rushed down, but just like Aneurin's study, the room is a mess, with cobwebs around. It seemed that Ahrin hasn't been in that room in a long, long while.
"Where the heck are the servants? This mansion is completely abandoned!" Alaric complained, blasting off cobwebs with a water jet he summoned. "Wait Kirin, how about the third place you were talking about?" Freyja asked.
Even before Kirin could answer, two phreinians appeared in front of them. The phreinians were different from the ones they fought before. They were around 7-foot-tall, with light reddish skin and long black hair. They were clad in a different kind of robes they've never seen before. Not even the prince Alyon.
"You must be Alyon Reini." One of them said, shooting a condescending look at the phreinian prince. "Alyon, do you know them?" Freyja asked. Alyon just shook his head, but readied himself for a fight.
"Of course, you don't." The other phreinian said summoning a thick, dark aura sword.
"Wait a minute…" Freyja squinted her eyes, looking closely at one of the phreinians in front of them. One of them looked so familiar. "You!" She suddenly shouted, surprising all of them. "You're there! When you rebelled against Celestia! I will never forget that face. I knew it!" Freyja started trembling in both fear and anger, as the memories of her past surfaced crystal clear. "You stabbed my mother!"
Freyja summoned the celestial rune-blade and charged straight at the phreinian without warning. The phreinian too was caught off-guard with her speed and lack of hesitation. While it was able to defend, the rune blade pierced through its torso. Had its companion not intervened, it would have been killed in one shot. Freyja jumped back, when the second phreinian started attacking her.
"That was close. Keep your guard up. She's dangerous." The phreinian said, giving time for its injured companion to get back on its feet.
"That one is the Lenfiare." The injured phreinian said. "So, you're finally out of your cage."
"Wait Freyja, who are they?" Alyon asked, stepping in front of Freyja. "I am positive. They are from the phreinian faction who helped with the rebellion. That one stabbed my mother when she was trying to seal the core in me."
"You don't seem to know them, Alyon." Kirin asked.
"Of course I don't. The phreinians who helped rebel against celestials were nothing but legends. Stories we never thought, actually existed." Alyon explained, holding back his trembling. "They must be staying in Celestia all these times."
"What!?" Alaric exclaimed. "So, they are from Celestia!? You mean to say they can open the gates to Celestia!?"
"Damn right." Freyja attacked once again, with Kirin backing her up this time. Alyon too, wanted to know more about them more than anything. He joined Kirin and Freyja, while Alaric prepare himself for a spell should the need arise.
Seeing the attack, the two phreinians merged their auras, redirecting the force of Freyja's attack just in time, before they repelled Kirin and Alyon. Freyja was slammed against the wall, while Kirin and Alyon were thrown aside. Working together, the two phreinians could amplify the force of their attacks.
"They are very strong together." Alyon said, signaling Kirin to find a way to split them up. Kirin rushed to the far-left side of the hall. When the phreinians ran after him, Alyon wrapped the other one with his aura, preventing it from joining Kirin. Alaric caught up with the plan. He summoned an ice wall, separating the two, before rushing to assist Kirin.
"Lenfiare! Help me!" Alyon shouted, struggling to keep the other one bound. Freyja rushed to help Alyon, summoning the rune blade in her hands. As she jumped high up, with Avice' help, the combined force of her attack and gravity powering the blow, Freyja looked at the phreinian straight in the eye. She could see in those split seconds the images of how this face stabbed her mother, how she ran away from them in horror, how she was sent far away in a foreign world, how she lived like an alien on earth, and every single horror she faced, because she was punished for a crime she did not even do. The celestial rune blade, cut the body of the phreinian into two, blood squirting out, its limbs burning with white flames. Freyja took a couple of deep breaths before turning to her friends who are fighting on the other side of the ice wall.
"Alyon, let's go help them." But before they could reach Kirin and Alaric, the two had already defeated the other. But before Kirin could finish their opponent, the phreinian laughed. "You're too late. He's already destroying the dimensional gates…" It said, in between groans of pain. Then, it turned its eyes to Freyja. "Lenfiare… you will never succeed in destroying—" But even before it could finish, Kirin stabbed its face with his dark aura sword.
"This is bad. They sounded too confident to be bluffing." Alyon clenched his fists. "We can't let the barrier collapse! It will be utter chaos between the worlds! Lenfiare!" Alyon said, shaking her shoulders.
"Kirin, lead the way." Freyja urged Kirin, who immediately rushed further up the mansion. To the last and only place he knew, he could find Ahrin.
"There is a forbidden room in the Aethelmaer mansion, on one of the towers." Kirin explained, as they rushed past several rooms, and climbed several steps. "Even I wasn't allowed in there. No one has ever been there…" He continued, as they headed out of the main mansion and crossed bridges to reach the towers. "Whatever they're hiding, I have a feeling this is connected to this mess."
They were stopped on their tracks, seeing something violently swirling from up above the sky, just above one of the towers of the mansion. "That is…" Freyja knew exactly what it is. A chill run through her spine, she felt cold sweat on her forehead. It's exactly the same portal that swallowed her in one of the towers in Celestia, and dragged her out of the kingdom. It's the last thing she saw before her mother pushed her away. There can be no mistake. Freyja's pupils dilated. She summoned Avice, in his beast form, and ordered her friends to climb up the flying guardian fast!
Freyja ordered Avice to fly to that tower, the fastest he can ever go.
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