Despite feeling the urge to crawl away under Draven's intense gaze, Rhea refused to stay quiet. Instead, she put on a brave demeanor and scoffed, "Your opinion is not required in this situation. I am well-versed in your history and actions towards the individual who trusted you. The advice that you have to offer…" with a brief pause, she added, "well, let's just say that it's not needed."
"...!" Draven's expression chilled up as he stared at her. However, Rhea didn't care about his cold expression, she still opened her mouth attempting to speak again, but before she could do so, Draven rebuked, "Silence!" his face contorting with an unexpected surge of anger, "One more word from your mouth, I'll..."
Once more, she interrupted him with a sharp tone, questioning, "What? Do you intend on hitting me? I am rather curious to witness your attempt." Rhea laughed in a scornful manner, tauntingly saying, "I feel really satisfied everytime I make you angry, It brings me an immense amount of pleasure. Because a heartless jerk as you is unworthy of happiness for the sins you've committed in the past."
Draven's jaw tightened, but before he could flare up, Rhea turned her attention back to Sila, "How can we help Rinus regain his senses?" She asked completely ignoring the angry Draven.
Suppressing his fury, Draven restrained himself from flaring up when she shifted her attention back to Sila. Flaring up would make him sound like a fool. Hence, his emotions and words were trapped in his throat. Draven neither could spit them out nor could he gulp them down. As a way to hold back his anger, he tightly balled up his fists.
This woman was like an ant crawling under his skin all the time. She kept on hitting his sore spot repeatedly, but yet she proudly got away with it everytime. She gave him no time to even lash out his anger.
With a malicious gaze, Draven contemplated Rhea who was gradually irritating him. However, he reassured himself that it was simply a passing feeling. Once he obtained what he desired from her, he would no longer endure her presence.
She thought of him as evil, right? He might as well show her what evil was like. Draven thought.
Rhea's question made Sila who had been looking at the couple in wonderment snap out of her thoughts as well, her attention returned to Rhea, her expression turned solemn, she then shook her head, "The flame spell is really strong, I have tried countless things, but nothing could cure him."
After pondering for a moment, Rhea arrived at a realization. She knew that once a flame spell was cast, only its caster could reverse it, unless they were fortunate enough to encounter someone with the coldest magic that could counteract its effects. However, with Azure being wrongfully accused now, taking Rinus back to the capital would surely harm Azure's reputation. Thus, the only viable solution was to heal Rinus, enabling him to reveal the culprit and unburden Azure of all wrongdoing.
Hence, she had to help look for a cure no matter what. Which also means her dream of becoming rich would have to wait until Rinus was cured.
As Rhea was trying to think of a way out, Draven spoke up again. "I can cure him if I could get my essence back from that cave."
Sila's expression brightened up, "You have the powers to take away the flames?" She asked, and Draven gave her a nod of his head.
However, Rhea was aware that the intentions of this Dragon always appeared tightly closed, yet lurking behind it was a calculating mind. Considering her previous experience with him, she contemplated for a moment before speaking, "How should we trust that you can help when you seem to have a thing with the fire controllers?"
She wasn't a fool to trust this man.
"Don't forget I used to possess the coldest magic on earth." He said indifferently.
Nonetheless, Rhea still wanted to refuse his help, but then stopped as a thought dawned onto her. He was an ice Dragon, his ice magic could fight the flame in Rinus' body. She quickly cleared her throat, "How do you plan to pass the fire barrier then?"
Draven's gaze shifted back to Sila, he then said, "Your venom has locked her spikes, if you could remove it from her body, she would be able to help me get through the cave and retrieve my essence."
As expected, Sila readily agreed to eliminate the venom from Rhea's system without any further questions of the essence he spoke of. She was determined to do whatever it took to heal Rinus.
Sila swiftly evoked her magic, summoning an ink-black light in the palm of her hand. She then applied it to Rhea's neck. The effects were immediately apparent as Rhea sensed a rush of coldness coursing through her veins. Her hair gradually reverted to its original silver colour, and her complexion turned eerily pallid without a hint of blush.
Rhea's smile broadened significantly as she felt her inner snow flurry reawaken. Her body began to vibrate with renewed vigour. With a surge of excitement, she extended her arms and unleashed a flurry of ice spikes in all directions.
"My spikes are back!"
Sila couldn't help but question as the atmosphere turned chilly, "How did you get to possess such rare ability in Birhhan?"
It was uncommon for anyone to possess another power apart from flame or wind in Birhhan. Sila had never seen anyone with ice spikes before in Birhhan, but this girl.
Rhea shrugged, "I was born with it, I have no idea how I came to be different." She said.
"Let's go bring down the barrier!" Rhea exclaimed, throwing a quick glance towards Draven. Despite his lack of magic now, she couldn't dismiss the possibility of his malevolent intentions with the way he was maliciously gazing at her. She would be on alert in case she detects any unsettling signs from him while they were inside the cave, she wouldn't hesitate to strike him to death with her spikes to prevent him from unleashing any havoc outside.
For all she knew, he might still have the intentions of conquering Birhhan despite his loss years ago, and who knew what was behind those caves. However, now that her spikes were back, she was confident enough to follow him.
"It's getting late now, we will go to the cave tomorrow morning." Draven declared indifferently.