The fire brigade alarm went off, in a matter of seconds all of the firefighters prepared their equipment and went to the truck. Asphela and Exoutius were in training they still do not have permission to be in the field with the others; they stayed there and watched two trucks full of people depart. The Cavalier responsible for their training had to go to help the others, leaving them under the responsibility of the second team of the fire department. \\
A couple of minutes after the departure of the team one, they received another call, this time from the firefighters that left earlier. According to them, a building located on the western and northern boundary, was on fire and almost falling due to the damage of it. They needed help to control the situation, there it was people all around the area, some of them running and others, watching to see the outcome of the situation, as if it was a big event. \\
After hearing how was the situation, the second team started to prepare themselves. The captain of the group decided to take Asphela and Onami with them; since they were informed that there was a lot of people rioting the place, his idea was to use them to control the chaos. The people would see two imponent armors in the place and would respect the perimeter imposed by the firefighters. \\
It was the first time the two girls were riding in a fire truck. It felt weird at first, the giant truck running at an amazing speed through the streets of the city. The cars in the way, would go to the side to clean the path immediately after hearing the sound of the siren. Exoutius was looking to the eyes of the people inside the cars, when the glances found each other's path, she felt something incredibly good inside her, a mix of surprise, shame and pride. People were looking up to her in the same way she used to do as a kid. In order to reach a wealthy society, all professions are necessary; some shine more than others and give the impression that they are more important even though it is not true. These jobs draw attention and prestige, people respect those professionals and value them; parents encourage their children to pursue that path because they believe that it is the best for them, and, by believing that, children dream and desire to be admired through their future professions. Doctors, veterinarians, detectives, movie actors, even firefighters; these are some of the professions that grant prestige, that make people be admired. The profession of Cavalier is one of them. \\
Becoming a Cavalier is, by far, the most one, of these. Not because it is the hardest, or because it pays better, or even because it gives you powers. It is because it is rare, almost luck; if someone wants to become a doctor, this person has to study, go to college and study, has to do residency and study; if it fails in one of the steps of this process, it can start again, try again tomorrow or next year. With the Cavaliers is different, you have three chances, one each year of high school; some random Cavalier with a relative high patent will show up in your class one day and make the test. The test does not depend on you so there is nothing you can do except wait and pray. If chosen, all of your dreams will come true, your parents will be proud, you will be paid a lot of money, you will be admired and you get the chance to walk around the city with a pretty, shiny armor. If rejected, you can keep praying for next year and, maybe, things will be different; next year arrives but nothing changes, and then, another year comes and takes your last chance away. That's it. At the end of the last year, in the graduation ceremony, a Cavalier of relative high patent appears and takes the small ball of mana someone else placed in you. From that point on, all you can do is hope that things go different to your children. Being a Cavalier is more than a big honor, it is also predestination. That is why there are so respected, admired and envied. \\
That is what Exoutius was feeling in that moment. As if she could hear someone's mother saying: "You have to be just like that girl when you grow up".
A couple of minutes of driving later, they finally arrived at the building. It was hell. People were running in all directions, some, from the flames, and others, into it. The firefighters were trying to keep them away, but the amount of people in the place exceeded what they were able to control. At one point of proximity the truck was no longer able to proceed due to the chaos in the place, they were forced to get out of the truck and finish the path on foot. Asphela and Exoutius followed the captain of the second team as he stoically walked through the crowd, pushing people and cleaning the way to his subordinates. \\
When they reached the place where the first team was, the orders started to come from every direction: "help here", "stay away from the fire", "push them away". For a brief moment, the two cavaliers were lost. All of the firefighters in both teams were running around doing important things without time to explain to them what they needed to do. The captain from the second team saw what was happening to them and instructed both of the girls to help maintain a safe and organized area around the building and the other firefighters. The two girls now had orders to follow but not a clear path to do so. Asphela approached the large group of people and screamed.\\
—Everyone, listen to me. We need to clear this area; it is dangerous to be here. \\
No one listened to her so she tried again. \\
—Hey... Listen. You all need to disperse. This place is not safe.\\
People were screaming and walking all around, no one even listened to her. When Asphela started to look around, some people were trespassing the warning tape. She ran to them, pushed them back to the other part and told them to back off. When she looked to the other side, more people were doing the same thing, some of them still had belongings and acquaintances trapped in the building which motivated them to enter in there no matter the consequences.\\
—I need you to shoot a small fire ball in the air. — Asphela said to Exoutius. \\
—Why?\\
—To scare the people and make them run away. \\
—NO. If I do that, they would start running and some of them could get hurt. Instead of make them ran I think we should block their passage to this side and slowly push them away. \\
—Can you do that? \\
—I think so... \\
—What do you want me to do? \\
Exoutius thought for a while and then gave her response. The two cavaliers started to act immediately. \\
Asphela positioned herself at the exact place where the warning tape was and waited for Exoutius to finish casting her spell. \\
"\\Veni ad me \\
Ad petram petram \\
Coniuncta inter Columnas \\
Levate singulatim \\
Post Asphela, ita sit\\"
When the last word finished forming in Exoutius's mouth, the ground started to shake and all of the people started to tremble. Asphela turned into lightning and started to run on the divide between the civilians and the fire department. Every time her feet would touch the ground and move away from it; a giant column made of the ground below her would appear right after in the exact same place where she was. In an instant, she ran the entire perimeter around the building, making sure to pass in the places delimited by the firefighters. The witnesses of the feat were surprised by the situation. In a blink of an eye, a blue flash blinded everyone and giant wall emerged in front of them. When Asphela returned to her starting point, Exoutius stopped casting the spell, closing the perimeter and all of the entrances to the place with one exception that she intentionally left for ambulances and other workers that would need to go inside. The only ones that were already inside the walls were the firefighters and the people rescued from the building receiving medical treatment, there were not many, but the ones that remained there were in critical condition. Soon after the cavaliers controlled the situation, a small group of three firefighters came out of the building carrying two more people, one was passed out and the other was awake but barely breathing. One of the three firefighters looked around and saw the two girls, he walked to them and spoke. \\
—What are you two doing here? \\
His voice was familiar to them but still not recognizable, he took off the helmet and the mask he was wearing and showed his face to them. It was Yahoel, their instructor. \\
—The captain brought us with the second team. — Asphela explained — To help hold the people back. \\
—You two made this? — He pointed to the wall. \\
The two cavaliers nodded. \\
—It looks pretty good. — He sighed — I'm sorry for all of this, usually you wouldn't need to be here. In situations like this, we would have help from the police too, but they haven't appeared yet and we don't know why...
A few blocks away from there, to the south of the west zone, Tius and Mikael were hiding behind the walls of a warehouse. \\
In that morning, they were going to their last patrol in pairs; after weeks of only being sent together, Tius was more than happy to finally go on his own patrols without Mikael. They were going on the usual route, starting at the police station, heading to the northern part of the zone and then going south through the path near the center of the city or through the west extreme of it. They take turns to ensure that all of the parties are well patrolled and, in that day, they went to the western path. After they passed through the southern end of the zone, Mikael decided to make a route different than usual by going to the region near the center of the city, Tius did not want to go but since the patrols were in pairs, if only one of them returned, things would be hard to explain. \\
They were passing through places they were used to already, but in directions that were not common. This part of the city, near the center, is mostly commercial. With a lot of big warehouses and some enterprises buildings all around the place. As much as he likes to complain about waking in the patrols, Tius also likes to look at the buildings; he stares at the constructions and imagine what could be happening inside them at the exact moment. While passing by one of his favorites, a green and white warehouse, he noticed something different. \\
—That's weird... \\
—What? — Mikael asked. \\
—The door is unlocked. \\
Mikael looked at the gate, it had three giant padlocks on it. \\
—How is it unlocked? — He said while pointing at the padlocks. \\
—These were not here yesterday. — He started to approach the gate — In a place this big, it doesn't make sense that they use such a weak security system as padlocks. \\
Tius touched one of the locks and pulled it, removing it from the gate. Mikael was impressed. \\
—See... \\
Mikael walked to the gate and removed another padlock. \\
—Oh God... We have to go inside. \\
—What? — Tius placed back the lock that was in his hand. \\
—Why is it open? \\
—I don't know and I don't care. Put the lock back. — Said Tius, worried about what Mikael could do. \\
—We need to check it out. \\
—No, we don't. — He stood between Mikael and the gate. \\
—What if something happened here. You said yourself, it's not normal this to be open like this. If something happened, we need to do something. We need to patrol... Let's patrol this... \\
—I bet someone just forgot to close this. \\
—If someone really forgot to close the gate, why would the padlocks be there? It wasn't an accident; something is going on in here and we need to go look. — Mikael went around Tius and proceeded to open the last lock. \\
He passed the gate and left it open. After a couple of seconds of regret, Tius followed him. The gate gave access to a large open area before the warehouse building, there, they saw some marks on the ground. \\
—Are these car tracks? — Mikael whispered to Tius. \\
—I don't think so... They don't have pairs... or tire patterns. \\
They continued to walk until reached the door to the building. Mikael gently pressed his ear against the metal door, for his surprise he did listened some distant mumbling but nothing he could actually understand. \\
—There are people in there... — He whispered to Tius. \\
—We really shouldn't be here — Tius said to himself as he looked sideways. \\
After a while trying to hear better what was going on, Mikael noticed that two people were in there and getting closer to the gate. While they were approaching, he heard part of their conversation. \\
— ...take out so many of them, I told you this one was a good one. \\
—I can't believe that this actually works... \\
—Remember that he said that this was just the test? Imagine what we will be able to do in a while... \\
Tius heard the sound of their steps and immediately pulled Mikael and dragged him to the side of the building. They kept on hiding there until the owners of the voices opened the door and revealed themselves. Tius froze when he saw the two armored men that came through.
The firefighters were preparing another group to enter the building once more, there were still people on the upper floors. Yahoel was the Cavalier going in the front of the team; his physical strength and resistance to higher temperatures was way above the standards, even among the Cavaliers in the red castle, his abilities were remarkable. Before entering, him and other four firefighters took more equipment, like extinguishers and oxygen tanks; he turned to Exoutius and told her to pay attention at the condition of the building, in cases like this, it can collapse and if that happens, he asked for them to protect the other firefighters by building other rock columns just like they did with the wall. \\
The team entered the building. The flames on the first floor were almost fully controlled, but the situation in the other floors was worrisome. They did not know how the fire started, but the flames in the second floor were large enough to extend and mix with the ones on the third floor reaching the fourth one. The objective of the team that just entered the building was to reach the terrace, as there were still people there that were not able to run to the first floor and escape as the others. \\
The way through the first floor was easy to them, Yahoel was in the front making the path and protecting the others while the rest of the team behind him were cleaning out the fires. When they reached the stair to the second floor, things started to change. The corridor that connected the stairs to the rest of the second floor was obstructed, and since the flames on the second floor were the ones worsening the situation, they wanted to clean that floor before going to the next one. Yahoel decided to split the team, him and another fireman were going to stay on the second floor to deal with the problems there and the others were going to the terrace and bring all the man in there to the ground. Said and done.\\
Three firefighters of the team ran up the stairs while Yahoel and another were trying to go through the corridor on the second floor. Their first obstacle to the rest of the floor was a small wall that broke and fell to the side, it consisted of brick and some steel beams. Without wasting time, the Cavalier bent down, leaned his back against the wall and lifted it, enough for his company to pass. When he was able to wall walk through, saw a great column reclining on the corridor and a hole on the floor beside the pillar. He would need to get rid of it, if he wanted to continue. On the outside, things were getting more and more complicated for the man at the top of the building had just leaned on the parapet.
The taller one was in a metallic brown, bulky armor and the other one was wearing a light grayish, also metallic, but skinny armor. None of them had ornaments like the armors owned by the Cavaliers in the castle, these ones looked like a bunch of plates glued together. They did not cover the whole body like the armors of the castle, usually, if not by the metal plates, the armors cover the body with fabric or cloth, these ones had holes in it, the joints were fully exposed, knees, elbow and groin were uncovered. This caught the attention of one of the cavaliers in the place, looking quickly, Tius noticed that the one in the gray armor was wearing white clothes underneath it and the other one was with some black pants and a red and yellow shirt. Those color pallets were familiar to him, he did not remember from where, but he knew that he already seen those before. \\
—Did he tell you how long will we have it? — The one in the gray armor asked. \\
—Those are ours... \\
—Forever? \\
—Yea... After we fin... \\
They started to walk in the direction where the two cavaliers were, Tius stopped focus on the conversation and quickly poked Mikael, the two boys jumped to the roof of the building. Tius started to look around, when he saw an extractor fan near them, he carefully walked to it and decoupled the thing to look inside the building, Mikael remained at the border to look at the two men. Naturally, their armors deeply intrigued the young cavalier, they did not seem lethal like Asphela, strong like Thysíla or resistant like Prospounae, they did not had wings like ValonVorum or were beautiful like Amniela, but there was something about them that he really liked. The only thing on them that you could say it was well crafted were the helmets, the gray one looked extremely polished, it had vertical bars protecting the eyes and a thin bulge on the chin. The other one had a single horizontal bar in front of the eyes, with two small holes for the nose and nothing else. They closed the door to the building they just left and continued to walk to the outside gate, Mikael was about to climb down to get near them when Tius called him. With a shaky voice and scared eyes, Tius stood there while Mikael walked to him to respond his call; when he arrived and looked through the hole in the ceiling, the vision of several bodies scattered on the floor disturbed and terrified the young man. Tius and Mikael stood there in silence for a while. \\
—I don't see any blood. — Tius pointed. \\
Mikael's eyes regained a little of the light they previously had. He put on his armor shoe and jumped inside it before Tius could hold him back. \\
—What are you doing? — He whispered and shouted at the same time — They may come back. \\
—I need to see if they are ok... \\
With one exception, all of the people on the floor were wearing the same uniform, Mikael approached the one without it and gently placed two fingers on the man's neck. He stood still for a while and then shouted. \\
—Hey, do you know how to do this? I just realized that I don't... \\
Tius tried to stop him from shouting but it did not work. He looked around to see if they two men were still around and then, against his own will, he jumped there too; he knew that, even though he did not want to get involved, he had to, because from what he heard, this could become a very serious problem. \\
He walked closer to Mikael, crouched and then placed his fingers on the man's neck, felling a soft heartbeat. \\
—He's alive. — They started to look at the room — I'm going to test other two, if they are also alive, I think it's safe to assume that all of them are. \\
—I wonder what happened here... and why. — Mikael said while Tius confirmed that the another one was alive — Did they stole anything? \\
—I don't remember seeing they carrying anything... —Tius crouched for the last one. \\
—Maybe we got here too late, they probably had already removed the things they wanted. \\
—This one is also alive... That probably responds those marks outside on the ground... — Tius deeply sighed — To think that Cavaliers would be stealing... \\
—They were n... \\
—Why did you bring me into this? — Tius screamed interrupting Mikael. \\
—What? \\
—Why did You make Me walk into This. — He slowly walked to Mikael as he spoke — We shouldn't have come in here. I did Not want to come in this place. \\
—What do you mean — Mikael started to shout too — It is our job. Why are you complaining about doing your own job? \\
—Our job was not invading this place... \\
—But it was to make sure that everything here was ok, and, as you can see, things are not. \\
In a screamed grunt, Tius continued. \\
—Why do you have to be so nosy? Because of you, we now witnessed something that we shouldn't. \\
—We witnessed something wrong and people in danger. What do you wanted me to do? Leave them here without knowing if they were even alive? \\
Tius contracted himself and his voice. \\
—Maybe... \\
Mikael stared scared at him. \\
—What kind of Cavalier are you? \\
—We are Not Cavaliers yet. — He screamed at the top of his lungs — And even if we were, Cavaliers are not this... perfect, emerald angels that you imagine. You just saw what two of them did here. \\
Mikael's eyes were perspiring such an anger that made Tius stop talking, they stared at each other until Mikael said. \\
—They were not Cavaliers. \\
—How do you know? \\
—Their armor... it didn't look like any of the ones we have at the castle. \\
—Are you sure? \\
—Yes... These ones were completely different. They looked improvised; a bit sloppy if I'm being honest. \\
Tius started to think. \\
—If you don't want to get involved, I understand, but I still plan on doing something about this... I will report what happened here to Skael, I won't mention your name so don't worry about it. \\
—You can't... — Tius interrupted him. \\
—Why? \\
—If they were not Cavaliers as you say, we can't tell this to anyone. \\
—You'll have to give me more than that... — Mikael was very confused. \\
—As far as I know, the only place where you can get an armor in this city is in the Red Castle, even if these ones don't belong to the Cavaliers, the only ones who know how to make them are still in the castle. \\
—Ok. — Mikael responded with a confused face. \\
—It's impossible for common people to invade the castle. So that leaves only one option... \\
—Earlier... I think I heard they talk about someone else. \\
—I heard that too. We can't tell anything to the Cavaliers because the other person they were talking about is probably one of us.
As the flames intensified, the amount of smoke and ash in the place became unbearable to the normal people at the place, the crowd started to disperse and Exoutius was finally able to bring the walls back to the ground. When she looked to the top of the building, saw a man standing right at the edge of the parapet. From where she could see, he had some visible signs of intense burns on his skin, his clothes were obviously scorched and he was moving with a lot of difficulty. The firefighters tried to contact him with a megaphone but he did not react to their messages, they told him about the group going to rescue him but the man stood in the edge threatening to jump from the building. \\
When Asphela saw what was going on she ran to the captain of the first team and said that she could help. She claimed that could enter the building, ran up to the man and bring him back in an instant. The captain did not want to rely in her, it was too risky leave such an important task to an intern in the process of learning; a firewoman of the first team intervein and told the captain that Asphela was the blue flash that they saw earlier before the wall rise, Exoutius also came in to testify in Asphela's favor. In that moment the building started to shake tremendously, it was a clear sign that something had happened inside of it, the giant structure almost jumped to the side; realizing that her had no more options, the captain of the first team authorized Asphela to enter the building. The cavalier instantly reacted by running to the building but, as soon as she took her first step inside the place, the building rocked like never before; in a blink of an eye, she ran past all of the flames in the stairs and continued to the terrace. The last thing she saw there was the man biggening his path to the ground; she instantly charged to him. \\
It is hard for Asphela to comprehend what is happening around her while she is fully transformed in lightning. As her body composition changes, her senses are deeply affected; she can't hear or smell, her vision gets blurred and her sense of touch changes, she never tried to eat anything so does not know how it works but since the sense of taste is very attached to the smell, and works similar to the touch, she assumed that it does not work either. When she runs in that form, she does not have a way to turn or stop without returning to her normal state, the first person to notice that was ValonVorum, when they fought together, he always tried to place her opposite to Prospounae, so after her charge he could hold her with his shield and send her back to the target. \\
At the top of the building, she saw the man starting to fall and immediately ran to him. In her lightning form she ran through the whole terrace and jumped to his reach, when her feet stopped touching the structure, she went back to her normal state and stretched her arm to reach the man but only her fingers got to him. He continued to fall and she was launched in the direction she was previously going. When Exoutius saw the man falling, she was shaken by it and allowed her instincts and reflexes dominate her mind. In the moment her eyes made contact with him, her left arm started to move and point in his direction, from the tip of her fingers something was coming. \\
Elemental magic does not require words to perform. The mana of a Cavalier, when out of the body, can naturally turn into one of the seven main elements; in special cases, if the Cavalier's element is not among the main seven (water, earth, fire, wind, lightning, light and darkness), the user tends to have a hard time returning to the basics, Sanael and Mikael are two examples of this situation, having them sound and ice as elements, respectively. Once you train enough, you can make your mana become any of the basic elements as you wish, the only thing you need to do is think of the element and bring your power out. Since the mana does not stays on its original form out of the body, at least not naturally, the only thing you need to focus is the shape you want your mana to take. If the purpose of your action is complex or requires more care and specific functions then "turn into this and go on this direction" or "turn into this and stay here", it is recommended to use a spell cast with words. Spells are essentially a chain of commands given by the user to its own mana in order to perform actions that involve particularities that cannot be reached by simple movements; they come in form of poems, these ranging from small, with three or four verses, to larger, more complex and harder, with seven or more verses. Exoutius performed one earlier by raising the wall off the ground. \\
In her mind, the thought of helping extinguish the fire using her powers still probed her, after training intensively her new water technique, her body kept the tension generated by it and was eager to release it. One millisecond of slip was all it took. \\
From the tip of her finger a thin, but powerful, soft and relentless, accidental, and extremely accurate stream of high-pressure water was launched. In the next fraction of second, she returned to the command of her body and stopped herself but, it was too late. Her attack hit the man, in the leg, hard to tell if it the cause of his death but it was enough to spread a large amount of blood in one of the walls of the building. Exoutius, after seeing the blood, got paralyzed, afraid of what she could have done to him. Without no one to stop it, the body kept falling, slowly in the young girl's eyes, silencing everyone there. Silence that was only broken by the sound of it's meat and bones crashing against the ground in front of Exoutius eyes.