WITH THE GREAT WALL OF JACKFRUIT TREES that Jack created around the vicinity of the shrine, he effectively isolated the fight to keep the civilians safe and blocked any paths that the hunters could use to escape.

The mages guarding the shrine were, however, too terror-struck and confused to join the fray and the griffin riders retreated instead, taking the mages away to safety.

Jack dashed towards Pancho and swung his jackfruit mace, but because of the sturdy body of the tree form of Pancho, even the hard jackfruits simply splattered. Jack, however, instantly created new jackfruits at the end of his maces and quickly swung them again, not minding his rapidly depleting mana.

After getting continuously battered by Jack's jackfruit maces, Pancho managed to grab one of the jackfruit maces and reeled in Jack. As soon as Jack was in the striking distance, Pancho released a jab, but Jack activated his jackfruit translucent barrier, not only protecting himself but destroying the arm of the tree body of Pancho as well.

Julian, who already got the Ruby fragment, decided to prioritize what they came for and tried to escape. He used his bitter gourd vines to swing upward and get over the wall of jackfruit trees, but Jack spotted him in his peripheral vision.

Pancho may be strong and sturdy, but he sure ain't fast in his orange tree form. Jack backs away from Pancho, spun his jackfruit mace, and released it towards the escaping Julian.

Julian dropped to the ground hard as he got hit by the jackfruit that Jack tossed, like a bird that got hit by a stone, losing the Ruby fragment in the process.

Jacobo ran towards the fragment and tried to retrieve it, but Sully the winged salamander swooped down and exhaled flame towards him, stopping him from his track.

Leon dismounted from Sully and retrieved the Ruby fragment. “Got it!”

Daisuke and his friends, the Seekers, and Mirana all arrived at the scene to assist Jack with the help of the griffin riders that left earlier.

“This place is a mess,” said Mirana, staring at the wall of jackfruit trees and splattered jackfruits.

Lisa and Jacob also arrived together with a handful of mages and more griffin riders.

“Nice going, Jack! If not for you, we would have lost another fragment!” Yelled Leon with the Ruby fragment raised to the air.

“Is that it? A human with plant power?” said Marcactas pointing at Pancho. He then removed his cloak and used his cactus power, creating six hovering ball-shaped cacti.

Lanatte followed by creating a banana leaf sword. “Surrender now, human. You’re surrounded.”

Musaoi went towards Julian who is being helped by Jacobo to get up. She created a cannon-shaped plant with watermelon ammunition aimed at Jacobo’s head. “Stay down, human. You don’t want this to get messy.”

Daisuke, Riku, Raijin, Siegfried, and Brunnhilde surrounded Pancho as well. Cromwell arrived with more mages and started to chant his Ink Magic.

Pancho looked around and saw the mages that surrounded him. His eyes traced upwards and saw a silhouette of a person sitting at the top of one of the walls of trees. The person looked displeased, stood up, and jumped to the other side of the wall. Pancho saw that Jacobo was now held by the mages and Julian was still laying down.

Outraged, Pancho released more mana and started to change his form even more drastically. From his humanoid orange tree form, it became more monster-looking --- two additional lower limbs grew on his behind, making him look like a quadruped. Two more arms grew on his back with his destroyed wooden arm growing back the way it used to be. More branches and leaves grew at the top of the tree.

Pancho went into a frenzy, shooting orange bullets everywhere indiscriminately with the same force as a cannon.

Mirana used her magic to protect her mages by creating a wall of ice, but the oranges manage to break the ice away. Cromwell did the same, with his ink barrier managing to stop the momentum of the oranges.

Siegfried and Brunnhilde easily dodged the barrage while Raijin was protected by Riku’s rose magic. Jack activated his jackfruit barrier, saving himself with ease. Leon and Sully would combine their firepower to burn any oranges that fly their way.

With the people around him unable to do anything, Pancho started to walk towards Leon. Pancho didn't mind the flame that burned his orange tree form and smashed the ground with one of his arms. And from where Leon was standing, an orange tree grew that wrapped around him.

“AAAHHHH!!” Leon howled in pain as he got constricted by the orange tree and dropped the fragment.

“LEON!” Mirana shouted

Pancho focused too much on Leon that the barrage slowed down. Mirana took the opportunity and casts a spell. “Glacio Aeon!!”

Sharp icicle spears formed on top of Pancho, and dropped at high speed, impaling the monster tree.

As the orange tree that’s wrapping Leon loosens a bit, he immediately casts a spell. “Flama Oros!”

A sphere of flame, almost golden in color, engulfed Leon and burnt the orange tree, including the walking orange tree form of Pancho. As the flame subsided, Leon dropped, but Sully managed to catch him before he reached the ground. From the burnt tree, Pancho's real body emerged and grabbed the Ruby fragment.

“Drop that fragment now!” Mirana ordered with her staff aimed at Pancho.

“NO!” shouted Pancho. “I’ll burn you all with this treasure!!”

“Don’t be a fool!” Cromwell shouted. “No one has ever managed to wield the star fragments in centuries. You’ll only harm yourself!” Deep inside, Cromwell knows that "harm" is an understatement.

“We’ll see about that!!”

Pancho gripped the Ruby fragment tightly and directed all of his mana towards it. The Ruby fragment promptly reacted to the mana and began to glow brightly, releasing an intense reddish-orange flame that started to swirl around Pancho.

The burning hot fragment made Pancho drop it. Then, the fragment started to levitate and kept on absorbing mana from Pancho.

“Everyone! Retreat!” Cromwell shouted.

* * * * *

The griffin riders swoop down to evacuate everyone.

Mirana created a wall of ice to shield from the Ruby fragment’s flames with the mages behind her creating several layers of magical barriers.

“Jack! Come on!” shouted Daisuke!

“NO!” Jack replied. “That human with our power...I’ll finish him!”

Raijin, Siegfried, and Riku mounted on Geri and Freki together with Brunnhilde.

“Daisuke! Let’s go!” said Brunnhilde as she extended her arms towards him. “Whatever that thing is, it’s unstable!”

“You guys go ahead! I’ll go with Jack!”

Brunnhilde didn't argue and ordered Geri and Freki ran away from the area.

“Jack! We need to go now, it’s no longer safe here!” Daisuke insisted.

The intense heat and solar flare-like flames that kept on bursting kept them at bay. Even with his jackfruit barrier, Jack could feel the heat and couldn't move an inch forward.

Almost all the mages have already left the area. The only ones left were Leon, Mirana, Cromwell, Daisuke, Jack, and the Seekers.

Flames kept on bursting out of the fragment. It burned down the wall of trees and the Northern Shrine. The ice wall created by Mirana was continuously melting, but she kept on reinforcing it to keep the Seekers safe.

The Ruby fragment was totally out of control as the flame it released intensified. The heat reached the point where even the road has started to melt, turning into lava.

Jack released his inner Daisuke and used every bit of his remaining mana, much to Daisuke's surprise --- he created trees in front of him continuously and ran towards Pancho. The trees burned down but he managed to close in with his jackfruit translucent barrier.

At the striking distance, Jack tries to smash him with his jackfruit mace. But as soon as he reaches Pancho, the latter suddenly ignited and a sphere of flame erupted, turning into a pillar of flame that consumed Pancho.

Jack got knocked back, but luckily, his jackfruit barrier saved him.

Leon and Sully got swallowed by the flame pillar, but Leon used his magic to safely control the flame and heat away from him and Sully. The two of them backed away as fast as they could and as soon as they are out of the flame pillar, Sully flew out of the scorching area.

Daisuke grabbed Jack who got disoriented after getting knocked back. He then created a tree beneath them that sent them upwards and away from the raging flame.

Cromwell and Mirana combined their magic to shield themself and the Seekers from the flame as they all slowly walk away from the flame pillar and escape from the area with the two other treasure hunters, tied by Musaoi's watermelon vines.

The flame pillar continued to rage, spinning like a tornado. Out of the blue, it started to move towards the central plaza. But even before it could leave the area, Lanaya arrives.

Lanaya cast a spell that turned her into ice and dives straight into the raging flame.

A few seconds later, the flame pillar instantly turned into an icy pillar and froze almost everything with a five hundred-meter radius. Lanaya came out from the top of the ice pillar and landed near Leon and Mirana. As she turned back to normal, she tossed the Ruby fragment to Leon, encased in a block of ice.

“Take that and go to the castle,” She then faced Mirana and saw the two other treasure hunters. “I'm sorry, but there's nothing left from your colleague. You two will be taken to the Central Shrine for interrogation. And you, Cromwell, survey the damages and report back to me on the estimated cost. If possible, I also want a timeline on when everything can be fixed.”

* * * * *

There weren’t many injured thanks to Jack, who isolated the fight, and to the quick reinforcements that arrived. Cromwell and his mages stayed at the scene to do what Lanaya asked them.

“That was intense!” said Raijin. “I have never seen anything like that in my entire life!”

“You did nothing,” said Riku.

“Hey guys, I’ll catch you all later. Got an order,” said Leon as he mounted Sully.

“Who’s that woman anyway? She’s so powerful,” asked Jack.

“She’s our second-in-command, Lanaya Yue. The younger sister of Mirana.”

“Really? How did she become the second-in-command?” asked Riku.

“That's up to the mage king. Anyway, I got to go now. See you guys later!” Leon gestured to Sully and flew towards the castle.

Daisuke and his friends approach Mirana who was speaking with the Seekers.

“I’m sorry guys. We’ve got our orders. If you want to talk with these hunters, you may go to the Central Shrine and ask for permission,” said Mirana as she and her mages escort Julian and Jacobo to a wagon that will take them to Central Shrine.

“Hey, Musaoi. What’s wrong?” asked Riku.

“Well, we still have to formally ask for permission to speak with those humans. Who knows how long that might take,” Musaoi answered, frowning and unhappy.

“It's really no big deal. Musaoi just hates stuff like waiting and falling in line.” Lanatte said, laughing at the Musaoi who's pouting at her.

“Let’s just follow their protocol. We're already here anyway,” said Marcactas.

“Anyway, nice catching up with you guys,” said Lanatte. “If you are all still here in two days, we could all watch the circus maybe?”

“Definitely!” Riku answered cheerfully.

* * * * *

Leon reached the castle in no time. As soon as he entered the castle’s grand hall, he saw Lanaya and the other Guardian Mages, except for Cromwell and Mirana who were attending to the task Lanaya told them to do.

“Ah, my son!” said King Fuegora.

Leon took out the fragment and showed it to the king.

“Great. Now everyone, follow me,” said Lanaya.

The king and Lanaya led the Guardian Mages and Leon inside the castle's magical vault. The king opened the vault’s first magical gate barrier while Lanaya opened the second. Inside, brimming treasures, artifacts, and powerful magical weapons were stored.

“Wait, we are not going to store these unstable fragments here again, are we?” asked Leon.

“Sadly, this is the only way,” answered the mage king.

“Those hunters managed to slip through our shrines' defenses. Looks like they didn’t even care if there are tons of mages around,” Lanaya added.

“But keeping the fragments together…We were already warned that keeping all fragments in one place is a huge risk. We ignored that and it happened seven years ago at the Central Shrine. Isn't that the reason why we now have the other five shrines?” he asked frustratingly.

“It'll only happen if there are five fragments. Since the Sapphire fragment is not here, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

“Before we enter, we would like to remind everyone that the activation of mana is not allowed. The defense mechanism of the vault will activate the guardian and will close the gates. Everyone, retract your mana now.” Ordered the mage king.

“Basically, the vault’s guardians will only deactivate when either destroyed or they kill us all first,” Lanaya added.

“Are those guardians the fabled Diabolia?” asked Tolstoy.

“Yes. And they are pretty much immune to everything. Almost as if attacks just slip through them.”

Even though Leon is against it, he and the guardians stored the four remaining fragments inside the castle’s vault. As they went out, the gates closed and turned into a wall.

“We will be going now, your highness.” Said Lanaya. “Leon, come with me to the Central Shrine. We’re not done yet with those hunters. The rest of you, continue to secure the shrines. No one, other than us, knows that the fragments are in here. Let's keep it that way.”

“Come on, Sully,” Leon called Sully as they followed Lanaya.

* * * * *

“Jack, we have to talk,” said Daisuke.

“About what?!”

“Back there, you were not thinking straight. What's gotten into you?”

“Those humans have our power! It’s not like a person will just one day wake up with elven power.”

“But we don’t know that!”

“Elven powers cannot be bestowed to others, Daisuke!”

“Guys! Stop it!” Riku intervened.

“Marcactas told us that they are investigating this phenomenon where humans with elven power started to show up and that it’s probably an artificial power,” Daisuke admitted.

“See? And where do you think they’ve got the power? Huh?!” asked Jack.

“From elves,” said Raijin.

“What if those Seekers who never returned were part of those experiments?! What if they were being held by these humans to get our powers?!”

“But are you going to hate every human with elven power? What if there are Seekers out there who just started to have their own families with humans?”

“Daisuke! You know that’s…” Riku said but couldn't say the word.

“I think that’s enough, guys,” Brunnhilde intervened. “We’re all just tired, it’s been such a long day.”

“Yeah, why don’t we set up a camp on the outskirts, cook some food we bought, and drink a barrel of chuckleberry wine? Huh? Huh?”

Riku breathed deeply and smiled. “Sounds like a plan, Siegfried.”