“Who do you think you are trying to touch with your dirty claws, you bastard!” Cecilia said, Charging towards the Flame. Towards her Alnea. Swords? Shields? Spears? It did not matter what came at her. She cut through them all with her Sharp, greenish black claws. Even the Wanderers who dared to get in her way. With the help of the cat striding along with her, of course. But not everyone could see her help.

  In the eyes of the others watching Cecilia Charge, the cat was just taking a walk. After all, the enemies around them were all at the Peak Stage. She would not have much physical advantage against them. So, she seldom attacked them head on. Instead, she just swallowed their Fortune, leaving the rest of the work to her human. In a way, without her, her human would not have Charged through their enemies so easily. But who asked her to be her human. She was definitely not greedy for the feast of Fortune. She was just helping her human…

  “What are you idiots doing?” the brown robed man yelled at the Wanderers trying to contain the green robed girl. “She is just an exhausted Advanced Stage Wanderer, and you still cannot stop her?”

  “…She is not just an Advanced Stage Wanderer,” the green robed man said, as he observed the girl, decimating her way through the Wanderers trying to stop her Charge. “Can you not sense it? Her Concept…”

  “Indeed,” the blue robed Wanderer said. “What a scary girl.”

  “Given time, she would be another True Black Serpent.”

  “No, even the True Black Serpent was not as good as her at her age.”

  “…What a blessed clan. Having two such capable heirs in the same generation…”

  “Unfortunately, it is going to lose one of its heirs today.”

  “…Are you sure? Can you bear the revenge of the crazy Serpents?”

  “It was a fair competition. I am sure they would not dare to break the rules.”

  “…Do you expect those crazy muscleheads to reason with you?”

  “…I heard that the True Black Serpent is very fond of her sister. She even dared to threaten the Elders of her clan to cripple their lineage if they dared to make her suffer any grievance.”

  “And you must not forget the Serpent Monarch. Though she has not made any moves in recent years, her stories are still a legend in the Tes Domain.”

  “There are also the Ancestors of her lineage. They all seem to dote on her very much. If something were to happen to her…”

  “…Then what are we supposed to do? Just stand in place, and let her kill us?”

  “Of course, not. No one can blame us for fighting back if she comes for our life.”

  “And we must also make her pay for killing so many of our clansmen.”

  “But we should not kill her…”

  “…Let us just break her arms and legs and send her back to the Lost City.”

  “That sounds like a better plan,” the yellow robed man said, before glancing towards the other girl in the distance. “What about her? She seems to be from a prominent clan too.”

  “…Is there any information about her clan?”

  “That is the problem. Let alone Rian, there is no information about her in all the surrounding countries.”

  “…Did you try searching according to her physical appearance? White hair is not a common feature in the Fifth Sector.”

  “…But it is common in the Lightning Region as a whole.”

  “Is she from one of the Lightning Seed clans?”

  “…She does not seem very proficient in the ways of Lightning. Besides, why would such a promising genius from a Lightning Seed clan team up with an heiress of the Serpia clan? And why would she care so much about an insignificant unfavoured?”

  “Then where is she from?”

  “…That is what I want to know. It is almost as if she appeared out of thin air.”

  “There must be some clues…”

  “Maybe. But we do not have any time to look for those clues.”

  “…Then let us go with the same plan for her. Just break her arms and legs and send her back to the Lost City.”

  After reaching a consensus, the leaders of the alliance signalled their orders to their followers, but did not make many changes to the battlefield itself. They just asked them to control their means, and to not release any fatal means. Not that the girls would have given them such a chance anyway.

  True fatal means, the kind of which would surely result in their enemies’ death, or at least severely injure them, if hit, were not so easy to release. The high cost of Spirit Power aside, manifesting Mysteries capable of such a feat often required Wanderers to stay still for at least ten to thirty seconds. Sometimes, even longer. A fact that both the girls knew very well. So, whenever they spotted a Wanderer taking more than ten seconds to prepare some Arcanas or Glyphs, they would make it a point to disturb the Wanderer’s casting.

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  There was just one problem. There were over fifty Wanderers around them. And though they were not in their best condition, neither were the girls. Rather, they seemed to be almost at their limit. Squandering their remaining precious strength and Spirit Power just to disturb their enemies’ Arcanas and Glyphs did not seem like a wise choice. Then again, charging directly into their enemies in their current state was not a wise choice either. But not all decisions had to be wise. Sometimes, Wanderers just had to follow their Hearts.

  So, Cecilia did not care about the Wanderers springing up in her way like weeds. Neither did she care about the different kinds of Mysteries falling on her head. At the moment, there was only one thing in her eyes. The boy who had turned into Flames. And no one could stop her from reaching him. Not even a thousand Wanderers, let alone some twenty to thirty of them.

  Though the Wanderers in her way did inconvenience her a little. Especially since she did not have much Spirit Power left. She could barely even keep her Aspects wrapped around her fingers to maintain her claws. But it did not matter. If her Aspects failed her, at least she would still have her fists. As long as she was alive, she would never let those bastards touch him. She would never—

  “Did you not listen to what I said?” Cecilia roared at the Wanderers in the distance, as one of them stretched their hand towards the Flame, while her claws crushed the head of a man in her way. “Keep yours dirty claws away him, you bastards.”

  “Ignore her,” the brown robed man said, as he continued stretching his hands towards the Flame, only to quickly back away right in the next moment, making way for another spear of white light. This one, aimed right at the position where he had been standing just a moment ago. And it also came much more swiftly than before. Had he hesitated for even a fraction of a moment…

  Narrowing his eyes at the spear—No, not a spear. Although the pillar of light came piercing as a spear, it was shaped more like a sword. An incorporeal sword, that soon flickered out of existence. But for a moment, the sword was indeed real. As was the breath of Death he felt earlier. And the one responsible for making him reacquaint himself with Death was the white haired girl, staring at him, and all the Wanderers around her with cold eyes, as she made her way towards the Flame.

  It did not matter how many Wanderers rushed towards her, or what kind of Arcanas or Glyphs they used against her. Nothing could stop her. Mostly because they could not even touch her robe. Every time they tried to get close to her, they would be bounced off by an invisible force, while their attacks would just be swallowed by her robe.

  Then there was also the cold in her eyes, oozing with the breath of Death. All those who dared to look at her directly, found themselves standing still in fear for a few moments. Even the brown robed man, standing over a hundred metres away. The ones next to her felt that fear even more intimately, climbing the back of their spin, making its way to their neck, gently caressing their throat…

  By the time those Wanderers came to their sense, the white haired woman had already walked past them. And they did not dare to turn around and rush after her again. At least not right away. It was only when they recalled that she was walking towards the goal of their mission, that they would grit their teeth, and go after her once again, only to be struck by fear once again. This girl…

  “…I think we underestimated this girl.”

  “…Not just this girl,” the pink robed man said, glancing towards the green robed girl making her way towards them. “Are these girls really at their limits?”

  “…What are you afraid of? They are just two little girls.”

  “Who are crushing our Wanderers with absolute strength,” the green robed man said. “Can we really stop them?”

  “…There is only one way to find out.”

  “When did you become so reckless, Nomar?” the blue robed man said. “Is it because she made you feel scared?”

  “Shut up!”

  “Why? Did I hit a nerve?”

  “Why not check it for yourself,” the brown robed man said, summoning a short sword in his hand, and was just about to rush towards the blue robed man, when the pink robed man came in between them.

  “That is enough,” the pink robed man said. “This is not the time for us to fight each other. If you have too much energy to spare, then think about how to deal with these girls.”

  “…What is there to think about? Just like with the boy, we can exhaust them to death.”

  “And what about the sacrifices we will make in the process?”

  “…It is a necessary sacrifice.”

  “…I wonder who it was who kept clamouring about the Lotus clan sacrificing our clansmen just a while ago.”

  “What are you trying to insinuate, Ejak?”

  “I am just saying—

  “Alright, you two. Stop it. You can fight each other later. Right now, we need to focus on taking down these girls.”

  “Indeed… Do you have any ideas, Mathias?”

  “…Like I said, all your answers are in the Miracle,” the Whitebud man said, staring at the Flames. “You just need to believe in it.”

  “…So be it. Let us first try to activate the Miracle, and see if it can help us. If it cannot, we will just go ahead with Nomar’s plan. After all, our top priority is our clan’s mission. Everything else comes next.”

  “What about that girl? Do you think she will just watch as we approach the Flame?”

  “…We can take turns defending against her attacks, as one of us approaches the Flame.”

  “That is a good idea.”

  “Then who is going to go first?”

  “Let me try it,” the brown robed man said, and stepped towards the Flame, and as expected, was met with a pillar of white light descending from the skies. But this time, his companions were prepared, blocking the sword well before it could reach the brown robed man, allowing him to approach the Flame unimpeded, and stretch his hands into—

  “I am afraid I cannot let you do that,” a voice rang out next to the brown robed man’s ears, just as a dagger stretched out from within the fog next to the flame, stabbing right towards the man’s chest. And if it were not for his excellent reflexes, along with a hint of caution that he had always maintained, it might even have pierced his heart.

  Fortunately for the man, he reacted in time, and swiftly backed away, staring solemnly at fog next to the Flame. As did the other Wanderers around him. So much so, that even the fog became a little shy with all the attention it was getting. Squirming, and swirling, it coalesced together—

  Or did it just split apart? It did not matter. At the moment, everyone’s eyes were on the figure that appeared next to the Flame, guarding it from ill intentioned hands. A woman, clad in a blue robe, with black hair and dark brown eyes. Ones seething with rage, barely suppressed by her rationality, staring at the Wanderers around her as if she was looking at dead men.

  “…Weina.”