“Urghh...”

“Brother, you’re awake”

“Nidhwen? ... Where is this place?”

“I don’t know. Brother, please don’t move. The golem will attack if you move”

Iandithas opened his eyes wider and scanned the surrounding. The room was dimly lit but he could see a golem was standing next to him. He was laying on a stone floor and it’s cold. His hands and feet were tied. He tried to move his head but immediately a tip of spear was pressed against his cheek. He stopped. He moved his eyeball to his left without moving his head and saw a glimpse of Nidhwen laying on the floor.

“We were captured”

“Yes, we were, brother”

“Nidhwen, did those filthy human hurt you?”

“No, that man just hit my chin and I passed out. When I woke up, I already in this room. I’m not hurt.

“It’s great that you’re not hurt”

“Are you okay, brother?”

“I can’t feel my leg and my body is hurting all over. I think my bones are broken”

Nidhwen sighed and stayed quiet for a while.

“Even a general as strong as you were defeated instantly”, she said gloomily.

“...”

“I think you made a mistake this time. You attack before you fully understand the enemies”, she criticized.

“What are you trying to say, sister?”

“Do you want to know, what happened after you were defeated?”

“...”

“Something exploded underneath the floor and a lot of the knights were killed”

“What!”

“I never see something like that but I read an old records, it should be a fire element spell used by human from the Land of Fire”

“Are you saying that they came from the Land of Fire?”

“No, it’s impossible to travel from there to here because of the creatures of water and wind who governing the Eastern Sea. They cut off all the contact between our continent and the Land of Fire since thousand years already”

“...”

“You’re unusually speak a lot, Nidhwen. Are you scared?”

“Of course I’m scared. What kind of idiot would be happy in a situation like this. I told you many times, talk first, don’t attack. Yet you still attack. You never listen. Now what? You got broken bones all over your body and I? I don’t even know what they will do to me”.

“Hahaha”

“What so funny?”

“You never raised your voice like this after big brother joined the Sacred Forest. You always listen to me”

“I hate you”

“So cute”

“...”

“...”

“When big brother received the invitation from the Sacred Forest after he reached the Gold rank, he didn’t even ask our opinion first. He just go. Brother, don’t tell me you will join the Sacred Forest too in the future?”

“I’m not going”

“Really?”

“If I also join them, who will inherit father’s throne? You’re the future Holy Maiden of the Guardian Shrine, so, I’m the only one left”

“Thank you, brother”

“Do you remember when we were young, we used to play with big brother and you always gang up with him to bully me?”

“Yes, it was the greatest memory I have”

“Yeah, me too”

“...”

“...”

“Brother, I’m scared. Do you know what they will do to us?”

“Don’t worry, sister. Nothing will happen to us”

“Really?”

“Trust me”

“Okay”

“Sister, have you contacted the headquarters or the shrine?”

“I tried, but I can’t get through. It’s like my power is sealed in here”

“That’s bad”

“...”

While the siblings were chatting inside the detention room, there was a riot outside the temple. The rioters were the residents who were surrendered to the enemies. The reason was they were denied an entrance into the temple. Furthermore, not everyone were denied, only those who surrendered were.

The entrance to the temple was tightly shut and nobody was standing guard outside of it. Even after several hours, it was still shut. Finally, when the rioters realized that the people inside the temple had no intention to invite them in, they settled down in a few abandoned houses near the temple. They burned woods from broken houses and furniture to produce light because there is no electricity after the Merge.

The Merge, that’s the word that was raising popularity among the town residents when they referred to the event which the Earth merged with this new world.

Some of the rioters were still hoping to be allowed to enter the temple tonight, so they made a big bonfire in front of the entrance. From time to time, they would shout and sometimes they sung.

Inside the main hall, the leaders of the community inside the temple were sitting together, discussing about today’s event. They sat in circle around a bonfire.

“Mr Shi, is it okay to let those people staying outside the barrier tonight? Isn’t dangerous?” a middle aged man wearing a priest robe asked.

“Mr Ho, they deserve it. They are the one who abandoned us first”, replied another middle aged man.

“In my opinion, the goal of the enemies was to drive all of us out. That’s why they started with the captured residents first. Then, after some of us surrendered, they also were used to threaten us”

“Indeed, while we repeatedly advised them not to surrender, they still proceed with their plan. They just have to understand why we refuse their entry, it’s due their own decision”

Shi Ming still kept his silence. He was torn inside when he made the decision to refuse their entry. But he had to do it. In a critical situation like now, solidarity among the survivors is a must but they choose to do as they want without considering the others. Majority of the survivors accepted his explanation about why they must not surrender. He even explained to them the history and the hatred between the elves and the human. But they refused to listen and chose to surrender. Even worse, after they were saved, they had a ball to blame their saviour.

“Let them cool their head outside. We will talk to them tomorrow. Right now we must discuss about something more important”, said Shi Ming. “We have a prince and a princess of the Isebial Kingdom as our prisoner, and they probably send an envoy tomorrow to demand their release. We won’t easily release them, so we need to think about something to counter their demand”

“But Mr Shi, we haven’t explain anything to them yet. I fear they will harbour a grudge against us. I think we should talk to them so they won’t resent us”, said Mr Ho.

“...”

Shi Ming stared at Mr Ho like he was saying, “Are you deaf? I said we will talk to them tomorrow, so we will talk tomorrow, not tonight”

“It’s too late for a talk, Mr Ho. The barrier have been shut for several hours already, so any explanation to them right now is useless. As I said, we will talk tomorrow and I will let you handle it. Let’s hope everything will be fine”, said Shi Ming to Mr Ho. Then he looked at everyone and said, “Let’s discuss about tomorrow. What possibly we can demand in exchange for our royal hostages”.

At the same time, there was an important meeting happened at the capital of Isebial Kingdom.

The capital of Isebial, Isengur, like the other elven cities was built among the great trees. Since the elves had a great affinities with the trees, the trees were cooperate with them when they decided to use the trees as their houses. The trees weren’t cut, but the elves use wood element magic to alter the shape of the trees to make a place suitable for living. Houses, stores, halls and the others were built inside the trees, while the forge, the stone mason and the other industries that were not related with wood were built on the forest floor at the edge of the city so they won’t harm the trees. As for the defensive perimeters, the elves planted multiple types of dangerous plants and trees as well as rearing many vicious animals to deter any enemies from invading the capital.

The castle for the royal family of Isebial and the administrative offices were located at the greatest, the grandest and the tallest tree at the capital.

The King of Isebial, King Fiverel was sitting on a golden chair at the end of a meeting table. He was tapping the table with a finger while looking at two elves. On his right was the head of Great Generals of Isebial Kingdom while on his left was the leader of the magicians in the kingdom.

“Durlan, explain, how did my children became a hostage?” King Fiverel spoke to the head of Great Generals. His face was stern and it was hiding a great rage underneath.

“The enemies employ a sneak attack and caught our troop off guard. They use explosion to hide their real intention which is to capture the prince and the princess. Talking about the explosion, the human of this continents never use them before, only the people from the Land of Fire did. But that was countless years ago because the contact between this continent and the Land of Fire have been cut off. No contact could be made between these two continents. Since the human at that town claimed that they came from another world, most probably the brought it from their world”, explained Durlan. “Also, the human who captured both His and Her Highness was using a never-seen-before magic. His magic enable him to strike anywhere during the battle. Here is the report about him who called himself Acma or Lord of the Heavenly Villa”.

Durlan stood up and gave a stack of report to King Fiverel.

“Is it true, Arfaern? About the spell?”, asked King Fiverel after he read the report.

“Durlan was right, Your Majesty. It was a magic that probably only the Sacred Forest have a record about it. I already sent a request to the Sacred Forest so they can illuminate us about this magic. There is a report from the Beastmen Brigade about the battle which occurred in front of the centaur’s village, it mentioned that the same human who captured His and Her Highness, used a spell in a form of a black sphere, sucking and destroying everything in its surrounding. Its destructiveness was evident”, replied Arfaern.

King Feverel frowned for a moment before he spoke.

“This Acma must be eliminated as soon as possible. We can’t let him grow”

“Your Majesty, I got a letter from Holy Maiden that she will deal with this human”, said Arfaern.

King Feverel appeared to be surprised when he heard that.

“Did she told you how is she going to handle it?”

“She’s going to ask Acma to join the Guardian to lure him to the Tirion Shrine since all the Guardians are appointed there”

“Tirion Shrine? Does she want to seal him underneath the shrine?”

“It’s possible, Your Majesty”

“Isn’t easier to kill rather than sealing him?”

“I don’t have an answer for that, Your Majesty”, Arfaern replied.

“I think, by sealing him means he will die a slower death. And no one who was sealed underneath the Tirion Shrine ever come back. It’s also possible that Holy Maiden want to prevent a retaliation from Acma”, Durlan spoke.

“...”

“Okay, let’s Holy Maiden deal with this Acma then. Durlan, how are you going to settle the matter about my children?” King Fiverel asked.

“I’ve sent Great General Baranduin to negotiate for the release His and Her Highness. He will bring together three knight brigades to pressure the enemies. I als...”

“Durlan, are you trying to kill my children?” King Fiverel cut off Durlan’s speech with a grim voice.

“I beg for forgiveness, Your Majesty. I didn’t mean to. I gave Baranduin an extremely clear instruction, never do anything that might jeopardize His and Her Highness safety”

“What make you think that those three knight brigades won’t jeopardize their safety?”

Durlan lowered his head for a while before looking at King Fiverel again.

“It’s a gamble, Your Majesty. I want the enemies know that we will do anything to release His and Her Highness”

“...”

“Pray that the enemies will get your message. Dismiss”, said King Fiverel as he waved his hand.

“Thank you, Your Majesty”

Both Great General Durlan and Archmage Arfaern retreated from the meeting room.