After a long journey, Yuuji finally arrived near the mountainous region of Skaldmara. He stopped at an inn located on the edge of the rugged terrain. Knowing that traveling on horse through the steep mountain paths would be impractical, he decided to leave his horse behind. Entering the inn, which was still open despite the late hour, he approached the receptionist. The receptionist greeted cheerfully:
-"Welcome, sir!"
Yuuji replied:
"Good evening, I'd like to leave my horse here. I'll be continuing on foot. What are your prices?"
The receptionist's expression shifted slightly, and he asked an unexpected question:
-"Are you heading to Skaldmara by any chance?"
Yuuji was confused:
- "Y-yes, I am, what's this question all of a sudden?"
Receptionist explained:
-"That's a very rare situation. We haven't had any customers that go to Skaldmara for years, but now we have 2 in one day."
Yuuji's eyes widened in surprise:
-"Two? The other person—was he a young man with long hair, a bit shorter than my height?"
The receptionist smiled knowingly:
-"Ah, so you know him?"
Yuuji's surprise melted into relief, a flicker of hope lighting up his expression:
-"Yes, he's my friend. He's gotten himself into something dangerous, and I need to find him before it's too late."
The receptionist's demeanor grew serious as he nodded in understanding.
-"I see. Then you shouldn't waste any more time. Leave your horse with us, and we'll sort out the payment when you return. Don't worry, it won't cost much."
Yuuji nodded gratefully and turned to the door:
-"Thank you. I'll be off then. Good evening."
Receptionist stopped the Yuuji who was leaving:
-" Wait sir, I'll give you a torch. We don't want you to fall down in the dark of the night and get hurt."
Accepting the torch, Yuuji thanked him again, went outside, handed his horse to the attendant, and set off into the night. As he climbed the steep, narrow paths, the torchlight illuminated his way. His thoughts were consumed by Kenma.
-"What is he thinking, going off alone? We were supposed to face this problem together. This area is crawling with Skaldars... How is he gonna do it all buy himself? And how am I supposed to find him in these massive mountains? Please Kenma, don't do anything reckless..."
As the sun rised, Yuuji was now quite high up in the mountains. He arrived at a cold area where the steep mountains gave way to a plateau. In this plateau covered with both giant trees and fog, Yuuji decided to use the mana vision technique in order to see his surroundings better as he continues to advance:
-"Mana vision, straight sight."
He can now see about 15 meters ahead within the angle his eyes see. But as he turned in a full circle to scan his surroundings, the technique suddenly failed. His vision blurred, and the mana flow around him disappeared.
-"My mana... it's sealed!"
Instantly drawing his katana, Yuuji pressed his back against a nearby tree, scanning the fog for any threats. Suddenly, a fireball burst through the mist, hurtling toward him. He dodged it by jumping to the side and stood up immediately. He placed his left hand over his chest and spoke:
-"Come out from wherever you are hiding and fight me honorably!"
A raspy voice echoed from the mist:
-"As you wish, human."
Hearing the footsteps approaching, Yuuji took a position with one hand on his chest. A skaldar jumped out of the fog and shined the katana in his hand using the fire element, and swang it. Yuuji parried the attack with his sword in one hand and pushed the skaldar away, then he stepped back to take position. A magic circle formed above the skaldar who is pushed back and a flame stream gushed out from the circle towards Yuuji.
-"It's over, human! I'll bring you to my master."
(Technique explanation, flame stream:
Some techniques do not require a magic circle, while others do. The flame stream technique created with a magic circle is, as its name suggests, a stream of flames gushes out towards the target.)
Although Skaldar thought everything was over, Yuuji broke the seal with his left hand on his chest at the last moment, then he created a magic circle with his hand sign:
-"Water element, Water Curtain."
(Technique explanation, water curtain:
The user activates the magic circle and creates a dense water curtain in front of him. This curtain neutralizes incoming attacks by absorbing or dispersing them. This technique can be created without a circle too."
The water curtain that formed in front of Yuuji, combined with the flame stream, caused the surroundings to be covered in steam. Taking advantage of the confusion, Yuuji launched a counterattack before skaldar could respond anything:
-"Earth Element, Swamp Prison...
Nature Element, Hands of Nature."
(Technique explanation, swamp prison:
The user liquidizes the soil under his target and sinks his target, then hardens the soil again, anchoring his target to the ground. This technique can be done by mastering the earth element or with the help of water element.
Technique explanation, Hands of Nature:
The user can attack to or interact with distant targets by controlling the tree branches that emerge from the ground.)
The ground beneath the skaldar liquefied, trapping it up to its knees. Branches erupted from the soil, wrapping around its arms and pinning it in place. Yuuji walked slowly through the steam. Skaldar looked at Yuuji with frightened eyes. Yuuji talked in a wry tone:
-"You said you'd take me to your master. Tell me where he is. I'd like to meet him myself."
...
Meanwhile, Kenma already got through the plateu, and was climbing to the next plateau, where the Skaldars were more numerous. These two plateus were divided by another steep field. Avoiding the main paths, Kenma relied on his ability of climbing and surviving in nature. While he was climbing the rugged terrain, he thought to himself:
"If I activate the medallion here, they'll all come for me to take it. Eventually, the winged one and the other guard will appear. I'll get my revenge on both of them... and take a step closer to solving Terranova's crisis."
As the dusk fell, Kenma reached a campsite where about 15 skaldars were camping. Observing from a distance, he smirked:
-"This is a perfect place to execute my plan."
Pulling the medallion out of his bag, he pressed it against his chest. Its faint glow intensified, drawing the skaldars' attention. Emerging from his hiding spot, Kenma walked toward the camp. The Skaldars froze in shock, their eyes widening at the sight of the medallion they had were looking for years. Without hesitation, they grabbed their weapons and attacked on Kenma. Kenma remembered the talk he did with Lyria Elwood back in Aurellio.
...
-"Lyria-san, can i ask a question?"
-" Of course, Kenma-san, what is it?"
-" What can I do to use my mana more efficiently? My mana capacity is at the level of an average person, but I drain it very quickly, I'm bad at controlling it."
-" Kenma-san, you can improve your mana control by training. Let me teach you a training that I always do: I sit somewhere in a comfortable position, close my eyes, and move my mana around inside my body. I try to agglomerate or compress it in a certain place. This is something we already do when using techniques, but doing it continuously is difficult and tiring. Of course, it's as tiring as it is effective. I'm sure you can increase your control if you do this!"
...
-"I've been practicing the training Lyria-san taught me for days without stopping. I also have this medallion in my hand that increases my mana capacity and physical strength. Now I can use more elemental techniques without worrying about running out of mana."
Kenma unsheathed his katana, his lips curling into a determined grin:
-"Electro Element: Lightning Cutter."
Purple lightning crackled along his blade as he darted forward, cutting down the Skaldars with precise strikes:
-"One... two... three... four... five—"
Before he could land the sixth blow, the medallion's glow faded, as the purple glow of his element technique did so:
-"What, what's going on? My mana is sealed!"
Staggering, Kenma barely blocked the spear of an attacking skaldar. Gritting his teeth, he stepped back, scanning the mage skaldars casting spells behind the ones he was fighting. He thought to himself:
-"The book said 'their ability to use magic is far superior to the humans'. I've forgotten about that. But luckily..."
He starts running towards the skaldars with his two katanas in his hands, dodging the spells coming at him:
-"...I'm used to fighting without elements too."
...
After saying goodbye to Yuuji, Ichika went to the palace without wasting any time, knocked on the door and entered:
-"Selena-san, Liang-san; emergency!"
Zhou Liang:
-"What happened Ichika-kun? Come sit down and catch your breath."
Yachi Ichika sat down and explained everything that happened one by one. Both of them listened carefully, and in shock, as they learned about the medallion and what Kenma did. Selena stood up in surprise after listening to the events:
-"How could something like this happen? Kenma, what are you thinking? We should get ready and set off as soon as possible!"
Zhou, with a thoughtful expression on his face:
-"You're right. This will very much upset the balance. We should set off as soon as possible. We can't let the medallion get lost. I'll go and make the necessary meetings right away. Be at the front courtyard of the palace in half an hour. We will set off immediately."
...
Ichika and Selena were in the courtyard in half an hour as they planned. Selena:
-"Since he told us to come here in half an hour, I thought 'he'd probably have a cart ready or something', but there's no car or horse. What are we going to go with?"
Ichika makes a sign saying 'I don't know'. At that moment, Zhou, followed by 10 wizards, got out of the palace annex:
-"If we go there by horse, we will all get tired and waste time, so I have another suggestion..."
...
Yuuji, as the sky darkens, has passed through an abandoned village and climbed to the next plateau, as he got directions from the skaldar be defeated:
-"After this forest, I will be entering the inner regions. I must be careful."
Walking in this cold, deserted forest; Yuuji stopped for a moment and listened to his surroundings. He could not hear any sound except the howling of the wind and his own breathing. In this deserted and frightening cold forest, he saw a bush among the huge spruce trees, which looked strange. It's color was different than every other bushes he saw while he was climbing. He pulled his katana and approached to take a closer look as he got suspicious. At that moment he came eye to eye with a skaldar behind the bush. At the same time, the branches of the bush hit each other like a whip and a sack of thorns flew towards Yuuji. As he realised that this was an ambush, Yuuji tried to protect himself with his arm, retreated and went behind a tree. His arms were covered in blood and his clothes were torn:
-"Nature element technique, I should have guessed! What is this bush doing at this height? It grows in my garden!"
He healed himself with the healing technique and used the mana vision technique to see what is happening around him:
-"Mana vision, straight sight."
He saw 5 more skaldars ahead in addition to the one attacking him:
-"There are too many. Fighting this many ene-"
Before he can finish his sentence, he is startled by a rustling sound coming from behind him. A skaldar, who has sneaked up on him, drawed his katana and was about to attack Yuuji. Realizing this at the last moment, Yuuji blocked the attack with his own katana and pinned the skaldar to the ground with the Hands of Nature technique:
-"Fighting this many enemies will tire me and drain my mana. In this case, there is only one thing to do..."
He sheathed his katana and started running with all his might:
-"RUN!!!"
As Yuuji ran quickly through the trees, the skaldars followes him. After running for a while, a gleam appeared in the darkness in front of him. While Yuuji looking at that direction, trying to understand what is happening, a giant bird of flame suddenly appeared. Yuuji barely dodged it, and fell to the ground because of the bird. The bird landed behind Yuuji, right in front of the skaldars, and exploded. The impact of the explosion was so great that Yuuji was flabbergasted. A few seconds later, Ichika's voice was heard:
-"Yuuji-kun, are you okay?"
Yuuji looked at Ichika who came right next to him:
-"Was that your element technique?"
-"Y-yeah? I showed it to you at the mansion, how quickly did you forget? It's my 'Wings of Flame' technique!"
Yuuji was still in shock:
-"Oh no, I didn't forget, but what you did that night wasn't this big. If I remember correctly, it was hand sized!"
Ichika answered she was proud of herself:
-"Hehe, I didn't make it that big because I was just showing it that day. What I did today was the biggest I could do."
Yuuji:
-"Hmm... Hey, wait a minute, it almost hit me!"
Ichika averted her gaze, as her proud face burned out:
-"Hehe, yeah. It's hard to maneuver when you make it that big you know."
After a short silence, Yuuji started laughing:
-"I almost died!"
Ichika was ashamed:
-"I-I'm sorry."
Yuuji stopped laughing, as he realised he was being unfrateful to Ichika:
-"No problem, thank you for saving me. We have to extinguish the fire... Wait, how did you get here all by yourself?"
Ichika explained:
-"We came with Selena-san and Liang-san, the Breton Royal Army's wizards teleported us to Skaldmara."
-"Teleportation? Were there any teleportation marks in Skaldmara?"
-"I think so."
Yuuji laughed, while extinguishing the burning trees with water from the magic circle he created in the air:
-"Haha, I see. Where are Zhou-san and Selena-san then?"
Ichika:
-"After we teleported here, we split up to find you two easily. Luckily, I found you..."
-"I see."
Ichika realised something was missing:
-"B-by the way, where are those skaldars who were chasing you earlier?"
Yuuji answered in a playful tone:
-" I don't know, i checked the surroundings with my mana vision, but none of them are around. Maybe they got scared by that explosion and ran away. I mean if I hadn't seen you, I would have run away too..."
Yachi blushed:
-"I-I created the technique that big to protect you! What would I do if something had happened to you?"
Yuuji laughed, as he continued joking:
-" Well, if I hadn't bowed my head, 'something' would happen to me because of that bird anyway."
Yachi blushed more, punching Yuuji in the back while he was laughing and extinguishing the fire:
-"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..!"
...
Selena Laurent, who was walking through the dark and cold forest, started to hear a noise from afar. As she moved towards the source of the noise, she realized that it is the sound of a battle and quickened her steps. When she got closer, she looked at what's happening without being noticed:
-"Mana vision: Elemental Sight, Wind."
When she activated her elemental sight, she was horrified when she saw what was happening in front of her. Among dozens of dead skaldars around, Kenma was fighting two "skaldar guards", he was wounded and exhausted. One was the winged skaldar they had seen before, the other one was a skaldar they had never seen before. The second skaldar did not have any holy weapons, he only had a katana in his hand. 'Could he be the owner of the medallion?' Selena thought. At that moment, the katana of the second skaldar cut through Kenma's left cheek, as he could not dodge the attack. Kenma, lost his balance and fell to the ground in order to protect himself when the winged skaldar swung his spear at him. The other skaldar guard:
-"This is it! I will finally have my medallion!"
He lifted the katana in his hand and swung it at Kenma.
-"It's not that easy!"
Selena, who jumped up when Kenma lost his balance, without a second thought, stepped in front of Kenma and blocked the attack. At that moment, she started fighting with two skaldars, but she was having hard times keeping up with both of them, as the two got serious. Kenma tried to stand up, in order tk help her, but the winged skaldar catched Kenma with a nature element technique similar to Yuuji's 'Hands of Nature' technique and prevented him from moving:
-"Stay where you are."
This decision, which she made without thinking in order to protect Kenma, ultimately costed Selena dearly. The winged skaldar teleported behind Selena, just like he did to Kenma years ago. Although Selena was able to react to this, the skaldar trapped Selena's sword with his spear and pinned it to the ground. At the same time, the owner of the medallion swung his katana at Selena. Selena, who dropped her sword that is pinned to the ground, tried to deflect the katana that is coming at her, but she can't, and her right arm was cut off from the elbow. Selena fell to the ground, as her arm was bleeding, she closed her eges. Looking at Selena who fell to the ground, the winged one mockingly said to his friend:
-"You've been using a katana for over a hundred years, yet you are still having trouble taking a people down with a single hit."
The owner of the medallion, while walking towards Kenma:
-"I'm better at using a spear than you, so don't try to patronize me."
-"Hmph."
...
It was a silent night in the Aurellio Knight Headquarters. Three of the overtimers; Cedric Ashford, Elara Silverlake and Lyria Elwood were in the working room, working on some papers. As the time got late, Lyria was struggling to stay awake. Being in such a duty despite her age, made her realise that what her senior Selena does was really impressive and worth commending. She wanted to start a chat to change the gloomy atmosphere in the room:
-" How are your works going, Cedric Senpai and Elara senpai?"
Cedric Ashford, the strategic genius of the army and master of earth element, answered without raising his head, looking at the papers:
-" I'm about to finish these papers, with the help of report Selena sent, everything is good so far."
Lyria turned to Silverlake:
-" What about you, Elara senpai?"
Elara Silverlake, the defence minister and the master of water techniques, who was slumbering on his desk, pulled herself together when she heard her name:
-" h-uh, me? I'm... what... did you ask?"
Lyra, who caught her slacking, tried to act like nothing happened:
-" I asked about how was your work going? I wanted to change this mood a bit, so i wanted to start a little talk if it's okay..."
Elara, agreeing what Lyria said while yawning:
-" Yeah, this mood makes me sleepy too... What did you want to talk about?"
Lyria answered, she was worried about her senior:
-" Selena-senpai, is she okay i wonder..."
Cedric Ashford didn't say anything, but he stopped for a moment when he heard thesw words. It looked like he was worried too. Elara, however, was relaxed and impervious as always:
-" I think she would be okay. I mean we are talking about Selena after all, she is one of the most talented and determined knight i have ever seen in this country. I trust her no matter what, she will successfully complete her task."
-"I think you are right..."
Lyria dived into deep thoughts, as Ashford kept writing on the papers in front of him and Silverlake yawned again.
...
As the two skaldars walked towards Kenma who was tied to the ground, Selena stood up once again and took her sword with her left hand that was still in place. Despite barely standing up, she started to prepare a final attack, as she closed her eyes and held her sword up at chest level, she began to cast a long incantation that will allow her to focus for the element technique she will create:
-" I call upon the mighty power of the storm and the vast depths of the sky. As the gates of the heavens open and the winds and lightning merge, I draw upon the force of nature..."
A strong wind suddenly started to blow from behind Selena. Seeing Selena's concentrated mana, the winged skaldar warned his friend while panicking:
-"Hey, she isn't over yet, stop her! She's preparing a great technique, look at the length of the spell she's using!"
The owner of the medallion took out his sheathed katana again and started running towards Selena. When he got close enough, he swung his katana at Selena. However, the katana got broken in the half by hitting an invisible wind barrier in front of Selena. Selena continued to cast the incantation with her eyes still closed, concentrating:
-"...The eyes of the lightning shall open, and the wrath of the storm shall rain upon me. Darkness of the heavens, grant me this power and reveal your deepest secrets. Wind Element, Storm Call!"
With the last sentence, Selena opened her eyes and sticked her sword into the ground, three magic circles formed in the sky and tornadoes descended from all three of them, starting to scatter the surroundings. The dust clouds formed by the strong wind blowing made it impossible to see the environment, lightnings are coming down from the clouds that are formed in the air. In the middle of this chaos, while Selena remained unaffected by the wind, tornadoes, or anything else; the skaldar just a few steps ahead struggled to stay on his feet. After a while, it got caught in one of the tornadoes and flew away. It was impossible to see anything in that dust. Selena, with the effect of using a lot of mana and losing blood from her arm, could barely stand and started to walk in the barrier, slowly towards where Kenma is:
-"I have to... save Kenma. No matter what... it takes..."
A heavy rain started to fall as the technique continued. At that moment when she couldn't see a thing, in the middle of the lightning and heavy rain, Selena found Kenma lying on the ground pinned to the ground by the brushes. However, Kenma was unconscious and the medallion was not with him. Selena cancelled the technique with a hand sign, the wind and tornadoes stopped, but the rain continued. The dust and smoke covering the surroundings slowly dispersed due to the effect of the wind stopping. Those two skaldars were not around. Selena's vision slowly darkened; she fell to her knees, then to Kenma's side, and her eyes closed.