Theo sat on a bed, a makeshift straw bed that was more comfortable than it looked, but still not comfortable enough for his taste. He watched Lyana, Vivi, and Ed, all three were unconscious. Bloodsoaked bandages covered Vivi's and Lyana's head and body, though their injuries were not life-threatening. Theo himself had bandages covering his left arm, his chest, and his stomach. The Knight dealt more damage to him than he had expected, and much more than the pain he felt. Broken left arm, dislocated shoulder, two broken ribs, and burned intestines. The doctor had patched him up and healed his burned innards, though a complete recovery would take a long time and a long rest. He had no time. The longer he waited, the smaller the chance of him closing the portal. He turned towards Ed. Ed was fine except for the charcoal black wound on his chest. How he survived that, or how Zarathustra saved him from that wound, Theo didn't know, but the wound was not a problem for Ed. The true problem was his severe lack of mana. Every living creature consumes mana to maintain their body function, whether they realized it or not. For most creatures, their body generated just enough mana for their daily consumption. Some creature, however, could generate or absorb more mana than they needed and store it inside their body for later use, allowing them to use magic. But this came with a risk. If they spent their whole mana, their body might not have enough to maintain its normal function and the user could die. Most of the time, they would lose consciousness before their mana ran out. But some other time ... Theo stood up. He shouldn't think about that, the doctors had assured Ed's safety and they were monitoring his condition closely in case something unexpected happened. He should leave it to the professional. He left the room and let them rest. The other room was where the Miracle was recovering. Vex, Tomoe, Bry, Tina, and Alina were all resting there, but Val was nowhere to be found. Val had brought them all there with her wind, including him. He should thank her and apologize to her, but she was furious at him and blamed him for this mess. And Vex had warned him over and over and over again to never make Val angry. Approaching her was not a wise thing to do, but one that he must. Vex's body was bandaged, but she was okay and awake, though the doctor forbade her to walk out from the bed. She smiled and waved a hand at Theo, with a great difficulty that clear on her face. Theo replied her smile, though his was a bitter smile that faded away soon after. Bry only received minor injuries, but she was completely spent like Ed. Tina received the worst wound out of anyone. Her feathers were burnt, her skin charred, her bones broken, her skull fractured, and other injuries that would take too long to list. The news of their condition was kept hidden to not cause an uproar. If anyone heard that one of the strongest adventurer party in Amaryn was reduced to a sorry state after fighting two Flame-Born Knights, it would demoralize the troops and adventurers and cause them to desert. No one wanted that. Sir Arslan entered the tent. He was still in his armor despite it was late at night, showing how much he took pride in his position and how wary he was for an ambush. "Ah! Sir Theo, can you please come with me?" Theo nodded and followed Sir Arslan out of the tent, and into another, smaller tent. The outside was cold with ashes from the erupting mountain falling down like a rain, along with an actual rain of water. Even though the camp was set up somewhere up the mountain, the ground wasn't rocky as he thought. The ashes covered ground was wet and muddy and made a sloshing sound with each step he took. And the trickling rain made it even worse. The moment he stepped into that tent, a sudden chill struck his bones. His breath turned white, and his body shivered uncontrollably. It was not a normal cold, there was fury in it, and hate. Soon Theo knew why. Val was waiting inside that tent, sitting in a wooden chair that shrunk and creaked due to the cold. But compared to the cold, the glare she gave him was far deadlier. The love and affection she had in her eyes for the past few days were gone, only anger was left. Theo sat opposite to Val while Sir Arslan took another seat. It was not a nice position to be in. The chairs below them were freezing cold like a solid ice, but Sir Arslan didn't utter a word. So too he didn't. "Do you think there are more Flame-Born Knights up there?" Sir Arslan asked to the pont, breaking the silence. "I ..." The word caught in his throat. The pressure and killing intent flooding over him from Val was overwhelming, to say the least. She really would kill him if he uttered the wrong word. "Lady Valera, please," Sir Arslan said. "We're trying to address the problem here and search for a solution." The killing intent subsided, but it was not gone. It still raged like a storm, but she gave him enough leeway to speak. " I... doubt there are more when we were attacked. But there might be more now." Val's eyes opened wide when she realized what Theo said. She was so consumed by anger that she didn't think about it earlier. The enmity she had was gone, she redirected it somewhere else. The cold disappeared and she abruptly stood up, knocking off her chair. She then stormed out of the tent. "Lady Val!" Sir Arslan called, but she ignored him. Theo followed Val and caught her arm before she could get too far. "Val, wait!" She turned and glared at him. "Where are you going?" "To the summit. I'm going to end this all now before there's more Flame-born Knight." She yanked her hand back. Theo grabbed her again. Ice crept on his hand from where he touched her. He could even see his hand turning pale, but he ignored the growing numbness, there was a more pressing matter at the moment. "What if there are more Flame-Born Knights up there?" "Then I'll kill them all!" she yelled. "Lady Val, please calm down, we mustn't rush," said Sir Arslan from behind. "Mustn't rush?!" The air turned cold once more. Ice even formed on her feet. "Are you both kidding me? Yesterday we faced three Flame-Born Knights, not just one, three! That means the portal is big enough that summoning a Flame-Born Knight is not a big deal! Do you want to wait until whoever the hell their leader is, come and step into this world? Because I don't! If we wait for a plan, even one more day, who knows how many Knights will be up there when we attack that place." Theo could feel the rapid increase in mana density in the air as it poured out from her body. The wind raged around them, and the trickle of rain turned into a full blown storm. Theo didn't know whether that was her or a coincidence, but he knew that pissing her off any further was a bad idea. But letting her go like that was an even worse one. Theo swallowed the spit in his mouth, "Can you defeat three? What if there are four? Five?" He was careful with the tone and the way he asked. Val stare intensified, but she didn't say anything. He was right, she might able to defeat one, but what if two or three of them attacked her at once. Her gaze moved to Sir Arslan. "Arslan, come with me!" Her tone was both familiar and commanding. "We both are strong enough to defeat five or six of them at once." "I can't," Sir Arslan answered quick. "And I won't." She turned and stared him. "You can't, you won't? Are you scared, Arslan? Have your old age makes you a coward, kid? Does your old age made your bladder weak?" Sir Arslan raised his brows and opened his mouth, but Val continued before he could utter a word. "HAH! Does being called a kid makes you angry, kid? Bet no one ever calls you that again, KID! You may think that you're experienced now, you're old now, the best swordsman in the world, but not to me. You're still the same kid whose shit I wiped every morning when your mother was too busy with work." There was a sorry look in Sir Arslan's eyes, but it was also stern. He had no time for discussing personal matters and past grudges. "I have my order, Lady Val. To lead this army and protect this point." Val walked to Sir Arslan. She stomped her feet with each step, freezing the wet ground solid and making sure everyone heard it. "Order? Order?! Oh! So noble of you, Arslan! So full of honor!" She punched his armor. The metal dented and turned blue where she punched it. But Sir Arslan didn't move nor flinch, her punch was powerful but not meant to hurt him. She stared at the ground and stopped speaking. Sir Arslan didn't speak, and Theo didn't want to interrupt them. There was something more between them than the current problem, something deeper more personal that he didn't know and shouldn't get in the way. Val had been in Amaryn for the last century or so and Sir Arslan was one of the oldest living human on the continent, it wasn't strange for them to have past problem. or problems. Val chuckled. "Honor and duty, huh? Very funny." She stared at Sir Arslan eyes with the stare of ice, but he wasn't intimidated, he had seen those stare a thousand times since he was a kid. She was clearly referring to a specific event when she said that. Sir Arslan looked at the ground. "I am not an honorable man, yes. I have done many things that stained my honor and brought shame to my family, yes." Sir Arslan turned his head to look around the camp. "But these soldiers are my men, my responsibility. I won't let them die for nothing," Sir Arslan replied. "What if when we attack the summit, they attacked our camp? It will be decimated. Thousands of soldiers will die without having the chance to even fight back." "I don't give a damn about your men! Millions will die if we don't stop them now!" "What about your friend?" Sir Arslan asked. He was calm and composed despite all the baiting. Val's red ears perked up. She didn't think of the relation between the two. "What do you mean?!" "You are not reckless, Lady Val. And you don't actually give a crap about those millions that will die, I know that. You only care about your friend and your family and those close to you. You can give me a thousand different reasons to attack the summit, from the most selfish to the most selfless reasons. But deep inside, you want revenge. You want to avenge your friend." Val growled, but she didn't deny it. Sir Arslan knew Val better than probably anyone alive in Amaryn. He knew her reasoning and motivation and her ways of thinking. "If we attack the summit and they attack us, there will be no one to protect your friend. They could barely move right now. Some, not even conscious. Lune will stay here, and Warwyn too, but I know you didn't trust the power of either of them." Again, she couldn't deny Sir Arslan's logic and reasoning, she couldn't argue against it. She understood it on a mental level, but it didn't sway and it didn't touch her heart. Which boiled her anger and frustration even more. She turned and walked away from the two men, her red cloak fluttered along with her movement "Then I will go alone." The frost melted and the strong wind calmed when she walked away. "Val," Theo called. He might anger her even more with what he was going to say, but he had to say it. For himself, for his promise with Sara, for Mary. "Take me with you." Val's long pointy ear twitched when she heard his request. It was an absurd request, asking the person that was furious at you to carry you without any good reason. "I can be a help, even if it's a little." She turned again, her sharp glare stabbed him and froze his body. A strong wind struck him square on the chest and knocked him down to the once again frozen solid ground. The hardness and the coldness of the ice were unnatural. It was as hard a steel and the cold reached his bone. "HELP?!" Her voice thundered with magic. Even a sentry at the farthest edge of the camp could hear her voice. "You are the reason all this happened! When you showed up, everyone began acting strangely. Vex, Tomoe, Tina, all of them!" Her chest heaved heavily. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and raised his bigger heavier body like it was a feather. "We are a Dragon-ranked party not in name only. There is no way for an enemy to sneak up on us without us detecting, without ME detecting it." Val tightened the grip on Theo's collar. The cold crawled on his neck as his shirt collar began to freeze. "But you ... You and that Violet alien girl of yours think only about yourself. Do you think I won't realize the cheap mind magic that she cast on us." Theo remembered about his order to Vivi to cast mind magic on the Miracle to further his plan to get them. "Everyone is too distracted by you, no one is able to focus on the matter at hand, on the threat coming for us! Even ..."There were hesitation and embarrassment in her voice. " ... me." "If," The cold reached his throat, and it felt like his windpipe froze. "if you think I'm the one responsible for this, then-" His throat was numb because of the cold. It was hard to breathe, and near impossible to speak. "-let me fix this, let me help you fix this." "Fix?" Val slammed Theo body to the ground, causing the incredibly hard ice to crack. "After all you had done to us, to me! After you cast that damned charm curse on me that I couldn't dispell! After all the embarrassment you put me through! Do you think you can just FIX things?!" Val's hands turned even colder. "No... No.... you can't just fix things and hope everything will be back to normal after all that you have done. After you so casually played and toyed with everyone's feeling, everyone's heart. My heart!" "Lady Val!" Sir Arslan shouted and unsheathed his sword when he realized her intention. But a thick wall of ice soared high to the sky, barring him from Theo and Val. An enormous killing intent and aura exploded out from Val's body. The temperature plummeted and the cold bite Theo's body like a hungry rabid dog. Theo thrashed around for a while, but it was useless. When the cold settled within his body, his consciousness faded away, slowly, but surely. Yet the cold was unlike what he had expected. It burned his body, sharp and intense nothing he ever felt, unlike even the fire spear that stabbed his gut and burned his innards. But that was only for a moment. Then the cold became soft and welcoming and embracing, and it sapped him of his strength and his will to fight back. The cold was as warm as a mother's embrace, shushing and singing him to sleep. Sir Arslan crushed the wall of ice with ease, but it formed back as fast as he destroyed them. With his Bloodrite he could absorb the magic from the ice and prevent it from reforming, but Bloodrite was far away, taking holiday in some distant land. "Lady Val!" He shouted once again, hoping to knock some sense into the head of the dark elf. Sir Arslan knew why she acted that way, toying with her heart, no, anyone's heart was a dangerous thing to do that anyone in the Continent should have known and should have avoided. But killing one of your allies because of emotion during a time of crisis was either foolish or childish. And he knew that Val was the latter and not the former. And there was no stopping Val when she was in one of her tantrums. The only way Sir Arslan knew, was to make himself an object of greater hate than Theo. "Lady Val, stop it! How will Jack think about you if you kill Theo?!" "ARSLAAANN!" She released Theo from her grasp and turned towards Sir Arslan. Her gaze was ice cold and unforgiving, filled with unbridled rage, yet it was also filled with a tint of sadness. The wall of ice around her came tumbling down and crashed into a million pieces. "If he was still alive right now and see you like that, how would he react? What would he say to you?" "Shut up!" Val's head dropped down. "You have no right to say his name, you have no right to carry the same last name as him!" Val stared the ground with an intense glare, she could have killed someone with that stare. The memories of the past came rushing back to her mind, and tears trickled down from her chin. "Lady Val." Sir Arslan approached her cautiously and place a hand on her shoulder. Even through his gauntlet her body was unnaturally cold. "Please don't rush to attack the summit. He wouldn't want that, he would have advised you against it." "Not fair! It's not fair for you to use his name." But what Sir Arslan said was true. Jack would have scolded her, and Jack would have advised her against it, and Jack would have been angry. Sir Arslan was his flesh and blood after all, he would know how Jack would think even though he never met him. Val turned and walked away, this time, however, she was heading back to her tent. She stopped her feet before she went too far. "Sunrise. I will postpone my attack until sunrise. If you change your mind then I will wait. If not, then I will attack there alone." She glared Theo one last time. "But not you." Her step echoed once more. "Val," Theo called her again. His voice was hoarse and roughed, and his body was still freezing cold. "I will attack the summit whether you want me or not. And if you refuse to carry me with your wind then I will find my own way." "Suit yourself. But don't show your face to me again or I will kill you ... and Arslan won't be able to help you next time." ------ Theo sat cross-legged inside his personal tent, meditating in the dark. Panes, his armor, and all his pouches laid in front of him. He had taken off all the bandage hindering his movement, even though he hasn't recovered yet. And the cold Val inflicted on him still hasn't left his body either. But it was not the time to rest and recover. He also thrown away all the thought about Val and how to get her and all his curiosity about Val and Sir Arslan relation and their problems. For now, he focused on the task at hand. He took his special pouch and poured the content out. A rock, two rings, one miniature hammer, two vials, a few crumpled scrolls, and a small mirror. There were a few items there that appeared like a normal trinket, the rest appeared like useless junks. But those items were not what they seemed. All the items there was very powerful if one knew how to use them and knew the risk of their usage. During the fight with the Flame-Born Knight, Theo tried to grab one of those items but failed. He thought it was because the Knight gave him no chance. But after some thinking, that might not be entirely true. Ever since his father passed six years prior, he hadn't even used one of those items. He almost used a few, but never actually used them in the end. Not only was he never in a situation where it was truly necessary to use those items, but there was also a slight hesitation deep inside his heart to use them. The items there was all a memento of his father, and most of it was a one use item that would destroy itself in the process. Theo knew how much he clung to the memories of his father, of how his death shaped him and haunted him still. He was subconsciously avoiding to use those items. But by trying to preserve the past, he sacrificed the present. By trying to preserve the relic of his father, he risked the life of his friend and his women. He took a deep breath and resolved his will. The same mistake would not happen again. He took one of the scattered items, one of the rings. An ancient ring with a big pale gray diamond encrusted on the top and carvings of wolves and werewolves along its curve. The ring was ridden with scratches and claw marks and the carving had lost some of its sharpness, but the image was still quite clear. It was the ring of the Wolf God. A ring his father stumbled upon inside a dungeon somewhere in the lush tropical forest of Girantine. Once worn, it would transform the wearer into werewolf regardless of condition or time or the fact that the wearer had not yet contracted a Lycanthropy. And to reverse it, the wearer simply need to remove it. Along with the transformation came strength and agility that continuously grow the longer the wearer stay transformed. But it also brought with it brutality and feral rage that consumed the wearer's sanity and intelligence. And if the ring were to break while the wearer was a werewolf, or if it was worn for too long, the wearer would turn to a wolf and there would be no return. Though the full effect of the ring and the maximum time were never truly tested. His father had only ever worn it for 10 minutes the longest. And the unfortunate people he tested it on took a varying amount of time to turn into a full wolf and lose all sanity. Then he took another item, a small vial bottle of thick viscous blue liquid. He forgot what was the name of that item, but he would not forget its effect. It had to be drank all at once to receive the desired effect, doubling every stat for a day, with the price of unable to move and a great excruciating pain for a week after the effect ran out. Those two items were perfect for his current situation. There was no telling how many enemies he had to fight to reach the summit, but he knew it would take a long time. He had to exercise great caution with using any or both of the items. The first one could transform him into a wolf if he was too engrossed in his fight, and the second one could make him a cripple in the middle of a fight if he drank it too early. He observed the rest of the scattered items. There was no other item with long-lasting effect. The rest only had instant or short-term effect. There was also the golden miniature hammer that he planned to use if Calamity had stepped into this world before he could close the portal. It was one of the most powerful items at his disposal, summoning his friend, an ancient Elemental strong enough to take care of Calamity and her Flame-Born Knights when it comes to fighting. But it would take him five minutes of nonstop chanting and praying to use the item. and his Friend could only stay in this world for ten minutes, at best, and after that, the hammer would be useless. He rearranged all the items in his pouches so he could access the ring and the vial more easily. And after some more preparations, he walked out. Val wouldn't carry him with her wind, and he mustn't let her be the one to stop the invasion. He had to start now, four hours before Val started if he wished to win this race. A race that he never thought would turn this way.