After a long journey, Yuuji approaches the mountainous region of Skaldmara. He stops at an inn he sees on the way. Since walking in this steep mountainous region is much more logical than riding a horse, he plans to leave his horse here. He goes inside to talk to the staff of the inn, which is still open despite it being the middle of the night:
-"Welcome sir!"
-"Welcome. I want to leave my horse here, I will continue on my way without a horse. What are the prices?"
-"Are you going to Skaldmara too?"
-"Y-yes?"
-"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."
-"Really? The other person was a short, long-haired young man, right?"
-"Ah, you know him!"
-"Yes! He's my friend and he got into a dangerous business all by himself, I'm going to find him."
-" I understand sir. Then leave your horse and go, don't waste time. We'll talk about the price when you get back, it won't be too expensive so don't worry."
-" Okay then, good evening!"
-" 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."
Yuuji thanks him, hands his horse over to the attendant and sets off immediately. While he climbs quickly through the steep and narrow paths with the help of the torchlight, he thinks about Kenma:
" What is he planning to do alone? Weren't we supposed to overcome this problem together? This area is where those hilichurls are most dense. How are you going to do it alone? And how am I going to find you in these huge mountains? I hope nothing happens to you, Kenma..."
As the sun rises, Yuuji is now quite high up. He arrives at a cold area where steep mountains give way to plateaus. In this plateau covered with both giant trees and fog, Yuuji decides to apply 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. While making a full circle around himself to check his surroundings, his technique suddenly fails:
-" What? My mana is sealed!"
He immediately draws his katana and leans his back against a tree. Suddenly, a fireball appears from the fog and comes towards him. He dodges it by jumping to the side and stands up immediately. He places his left hand over his chest and speaks:
-"Come out from wherever you are hiding and fight me honorably!"
A raspy voice rises from the mist:
-"Okay, as you wish!"
Hearing the footsteps approaching, Yuuji takes a position with one hand on his chest. A hilichurl, or a skaldar, jumps out of the fog and shines the katana in his hand using the fire element and swings it. Yuuji parries the attack with his sword in one hand and pushes the skaldar away and steps back. A magic circle forms above the skaldar who is pushed back and a flame stream gushes out from the circle towards Yuuji.
-"It's over, human! I'll take 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.
The water curtain that forms in front of Yuuji combines with the flame stream, causes the surroundings to be covered in steam. Caught off guard by what happened, Skaldar is exposed to a counterattack before he can make a second attack:
-"Geo Element, Swamp Prison...
Dendro Element, Hands of Nature."
(Technique explanation, swamp prison:
The user liquefies the soil under his target with the help of the element of water and sinks his target, then hardens the soil again, anchoring his target to the ground.
Technique explanation, Hands of Nature:
The user can attack or interact with distant targets by controlling the tree branch or branches that emerge from the ground.)
Skaldar is stuck in the ground up to his knees, and it's arms are caught by branches that grew from the ground. Yuuji walks slowly through the steam. Skaldar looks at Yuuji with frightened eyes:
-"What are you? Forget about being able to use 3 elements at once, this is the first time I've seen a person who can use such a powerful magic techniques this simply. Besides, I thought I sealed your mana?"
Yuuji ignores what Skaldar says:
-"You said 'I'll take you to my master'. Where is your master? I need to go and visit him."
Skaldar laughs at Yuuji's words:
-"Hahahaha! You may be strong, but don't think too highly of yourself! No one can stand against him! Even if there are 1000 of me, and they all attack at the same time, he's still strong enough to win!"
-" 1000 of you? Hmm... He's not that strong, you say."
Skaldar is really angry at Yuuji's behavior. In fact, it's been talking and distracting Yuuji all this while burning the branches that tie his arms behind his back and softening the ground under his feet. He answers angrily:
-"You're underestimating me too much!"
At the same time, he breaks free from where he's stuck and jumps at Yuuji, who is a few steps ahead of him, and attacks Yuuji by creating a sharp claw-like shape on his hand with the dendro element. But Yuuji is faster and in the blink of an eye, he unsheaths his katana, wounding Skaldar severely and sealing his mana. Skaldar, who falls to the ground, screams in pain. Yuuji:
-"Where's your master?"
Skaldar coughs up blood and struggles to speak:
-"You... are strong. B-but... even if I tell you where he is... you won't be able to defeat him."
Yuuji comes to the skaldar lying on the ground, crouches down and starts to heal it, while also speaking:
-" Say it anyway. I know I can't defeat him alone, but I'm not alone so it's okay. I'm just trying to get information. Come on, think of it as repayment for saving your life right now."
The skaldar is surprised that the person who brought him to the brink of death just a few seconds ago is now saving his life:
-"You, what... what are you doing? You're a strange person. What will happen if I attack you again after healing me here? You're also wasting your mana!"
Yuuji answers with a smile:
-"My purpose is not to shed blood and harm anyone, but to prevent anyone from getting hurt and upset. As for attacking me again... I'd like you not to."
-"Okay, then... okay. I'll ignore you and get away from here. As for my master's location, go all the way to the end of this forest. There is another plateau between this plateau and the summit. To find the path to that plateau, you need to find the abandoned village at the end of the forest. The most convenient way to get to the next plateau comfortably is through there. You will find many skaldars on that plateau, and my master will probably be there too."
Yuuji thought for a while and then replied:
- "I understand. Thank you. I have one last question..."
...
At that moment, Kenma was already climbing to the next plateau, where the skaldars were more crowded. He didn't use a path, and made rapid progress using the climbing and forest navigation skills he had developed since he was a child:
-"If I activate the medallion here, all the skaldars who are looking for it will come after me. And eventually, I will encounter that winged one and the other one. In this way, I can take my revenge on both of them, and I will also take a big step in solving this problem that Terranova is facing."
As the weather gets dark, he approaches a camp area where about 15 skaldars are staying:
-"I guess they are keeping watch in this area before the settlements. This seems like a good place to execute my plan."
He takes the medallion out of his bag and puts it in the middle of his chest, and the medallion begins to glow. When the skaldars see Kenma walking out of the place where he was hiding, they are surprised to see a person who has the medallion they have been looking for for years so deep in Skaldmara. They immediately reach for their weapons and attack towards Kenma.
...
-" Lyria-chan, can I have a minute? I have a question..."
-" Kenma-san, of course! What happened?"
-" 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-chan 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 opens his closed eyes and looks at the 6 skaldars coming towards him:
-"Electro element, Lightning cutter."
He slaughters the skaldars while counting as 'one, two, three' with that purple glow:
-"... four, five! That's it, I can keep goi-"
Before he can reach the sixth skaldar, his technique fails and he falls to the ground:
-"What, what's going on? My mana is sealed!"
He parries the spear of the sixth skaldar attacking him at the last moment with the katana in his left hand and immediately stands up, taking a few steps back, while thinking as he looks at the mage skaldars behind:
"The book said 'their ability to use magic is far superior to the humans'. I've forgotten about that. 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 sits down and tells everything that happened one by one. Selena stands 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. I'll go and make the necessary meetings right away. Be at the front courtyard of the palace in half an hour."
Ichika and Selena are in the courtyard in half an hour as they planned. Selena:
-"Since he said to come 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, leaves 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 the abandoned village that skaldar mentioned and climbed to the next plateau:
"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 that had never been touched by an axe. This bush was a thornbush that would not make sense at its height. When he handled his katana in his sheath and approached to take a closer look, at that moment he came face to face 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. 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 heals himself with the healing technique and uses the mana vision technique to see what is happening around him:
-"Mana vision, straight sight."
He sees 5 more skaldars ahead in addition to the one attacking him:
-"There are too many. Fight this ma-"
Before he can finish his sentence, he is blenched by a rustling sound coming from behind him. A skaldar, who has sneaked up on him, draws his katana and is about to attack Yuuji. Realizing this at the last moment, Yuuji blocks the attack with his own katana and pins 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 sheathes his katana and starts running with all his might:
-"RUN!!!"
As Yuuji runs quickly through the trees, the skaldars follow 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 appears. Yuuji dodges it, but falls to the ground because of the bird. The bird lands behind Yuuji, right in front of the skaldars, and explodes. The impact of the explosion is so great that Yuuji was flabbergasted. A few seconds later, Ichika's voice is heard:
-"Yuuji-kun, are you okay?"
Yuuji looks at Ichika who comes to him:
-"Was that your technique?"
-"Y-yeah? I showed it to you at the mansion, how quickly did you forget? It's my 'Wings of Flame' technique!"
Yuuji is 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!"
-"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."
-"Hmm... Hey, wait a minute, it almost hit me!"
Ichika averts her gaze:
-"Hehe, yeah. It's hard to maneuver when you make it that big."
After a short silence, Yuuji starts laughing:
-"I almost died!"
-"I-I'm sorry."
-"No problem. We have to extinguish the fire. How did you get here all by yourself?"
-"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?"
-"There are, I was surprised at first too. Liang-san tried to show off by saying something like 'Don't underestimate the Breton Royal Army!' but i guess it's normal since the hilichu-... skaldars live in Breton."
Yuuji laughs, 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?"
Ichika:
-"After we teleported here, we split up to find each other more easily. Luckily, I found you. B-by the way, where are the skaldars who were chasing you earlier?"
Yuuji:
-"I've been checking around 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 blushes:
-"I-I created the technique that big to protect you! What would I do if something had happened to you?"
Yuuji laughs:
-" Well, if I hadn't bowed my head, 'something' would happen to me because of that bird anyway."
Yachi blushes more, punching Yuuji in the back while he is laughing:
-"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..!"
...
Selena Laurent, who is walking through the dark and cold forest, starts to hear a noise from afar. As she moves towards the source of the noise, she realizes that it is the sound of a battle and quickens her steps. When she gets closer, she looks at what's happening without being noticed:
-"Mana vision: Elemental Sight, Anemo."
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", 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, then the katana continued, cutting off some of Kenma's long hair; Kenma 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 owner of the medallion:
-"This is it! I will finally have my medallion!"
He lifts the katana in his hand and swings it at Kenma.
-"It's not that easy!"
Selena, who jumped up when Kenma lost his balance, without a second thought, steps in front of Kenma and blocks the attack. At that moment, she starts fighting with two skaldars, but she was having hard times keeping up with both of them. The winged skaldar catches Kenma with a nature element technique similar to Yuuji's 'Hands of Nature' technique and prevents him from moving:
-"Stay where you are."
This decision, which she made without thinking in order to protect Kenma, ultimately cost Selena dearly. The winged skaldar teleports behind Selena, just like he did to Kenma years ago. Although Selena is able to react to this, the skaldar traps Selena's sword with his spear and pins it to the ground. At the same time, the owner of the medallion swings his katana at Selena. Selena, who drops her sword that is pinned to the ground, tries to deflect the katana that comes at her, but she can't, and her right arm is cut off at the elbow. 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 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."
As the two skaldars walked towards Kenma who was tied to the ground, Selena stood up and took her sword with her left hand that was still in place. She closed her eyes and held her sword up at chest level and began to cast a long incantation that will allow her to focus for the 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 warns his friend:
-"Hey, stop her! She's preparing a great technique, look at the length of the spell she's using!"
The owner of the medallion takes out his sheathed katana again and starts running towards Selena. When he gets close enough, he swings his katana at Selena. However, the katana breaks by hitting an invisible wind barrier in front of Selena. Selena continues 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. Anemo Element, Storm Call!"
With the last sentence, Selena opens her eyes and sticks her sword into the ground, three magic circles form in the sky and tornadoes descend from all three of them, starting to scatter the surroundings. The dust clouds formed by the strong wind blowing make it impossible to see the environment, lightnings are coming down from the magic circles that are constantly forming 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 their 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, can barely stand and starts to walk slowly towards where Kenma is:
-"I have to... save Kenma. No matter what... it takes..."
A heavy rain starts to fall as the technique continues. At that moment when she couldn't see a thing, in the middle of the lightning and heavy rain, Selena finds Kenma lying on the ground pinned to the ground by the brushes. However, Kenma is unconscious and the medallion is not with him. Selena cancels the technique with a hand sign, the wind and tornadoes stop, but the rain continues. The dust and smoke covering the surroundings slowly disperse due to the effect of the wind stopping. Those two skaldars were not around. Selena's vision slowly darkens; she falls to her knees, then to Kenma's side, and her eyes close.