Dmitri and one of the Mozias were looking for Adrianna. Dmitri was trying to pick her smell. They had to do it fast because they knew that Isidorus wouldn't be able to hold in front of Vikra for a long time. He wanted to find her so that he could along with other's help take her out from there. They must have combed the entire area in the half an hour they had with them but Dmitri couldn't pick her smell. What was it that was preventing him? As they walked, the Mozia noticed a part of the place where it was heavily guarded. He pointed it to Dmitri.

Dmitri frowned as to why was that place so heavily guarded? Was Adrianna over there? The two of them went walked towards that area with caution. There were so many neotides walking around that they had to take caution not to bump into any of them. Even when they were under an invisibility spell, their physical presence could be felt if they crashed into something or something collided with them. Together, they made their way to the area slowly. When they reached, they found that it was actually a cave that was covered with a large boulder.

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"I think there is magic around that boulder," whispered the Mozia.

"Do you think Adrianna is inside?" asked Dmitri as he tried to sniff.

"We have to take our chances," he replied.

Dmitri nodded and they went forward. In front of the entrance, there were so many neotides that it was not possible to reach the boulder. Suddenly one of the neotides dashed them from the back and fell. The two of them became scared. They froze in their place waiting for the neotide to create a commotion.

The neotide frowned not able to understand what he bumped into. He got up extended his hand to feel the presence of what he dashed into. Dmitri and the Mozia backed the moment he extended his hand, avoiding his touch.

"I think there is something here," shouted the neotide making Dmitri and the Mozia jump in fear.

Other neotides growled and looked at him. Slowly, they started advancing towards them. Dmitri nudged the Mozia to move back as much as possible. In the process they came dangerously close to the boulder, which was sheathed in magic. Dmitri was about to take one more step towards it when the Mozia stopped him.

Most of the neotides had already gone to the one who shouted and were very angry when they found that it was a fake call.

Mozia had to now quickly remove the magic from the boulder. He looked at the neotides who were now coming back to their positions. He realized that he had less than two minutes to remove the magic but he knew that every time he would remove a spell, first he had to understand what it was and then it would be removed with a small blast. So it was bound to get noisy. But he had to take his chances. They had seen all the places and this was the most likely place where Adrianna would be present.

The Mozia took a minute to understand the spell and as soon as he was about to remove it, a neotide came next to him. He gritted his teeth but continued the work. Suddenly there was a small blast on the side and a neotide who was present there jumped with fear and shock. All the neotides instantly became alerted. The entire group that was scattered all over started to come to the affected neotide. Dmitri became tense. The Mozia detected another spell and he removed that too. This time the blast was on the other side and it was heavier than the previous one. It blasted a small portion of the boulder making a dent in it and the small rocks splintered.

The neotides shouted and raised an alarm. They all started coming towards the boulder with their spears pointed at it. They were ready to poke them to anything that might be present there. Dmitri and the Mozia froze as they waited for the neotides to reach them. They had to leave that place immediately now. The Mozia snapped his finger and left. But to their utter surprise, instead of going back to the border, they found themselves inside the dark cave.

Outside the neotides were all in a frenzy as they kept poking the spears everywhere to kill the intruders. They were confused as to who could create the blasts in the boulder. They knew that if Vikra found out about the breach in security, he would kill all of them, so after running around and trying to find the intruders, they decided not to tell him more so because the blasts had stopped. It became peaceful.

Inside the cave Dmitri and the Mozia looked directly into the golden yellow eyes of what appeared to be a beast.

---

Isidorus was getting agitated by the minute in front of Vikra. "I am asking you to release Adrianna, Vikra otherwise you will be in a lot of trouble. We have surrounded you from all sides. Do you think your army of neotides is going to hold in front of us? Every wizard is capable of killing hundreds of neotides in a single strike, so how long do you think you can stand against us? All of them will be wiped out within a few hours!" shouted Isidorus.

Vikra shook his head. He said, "Tst tsk, Isidorus you are the same old stupid old man who had no brains. I used to tell you that a lot and even asked you to come to my side but you continued to stick to the ruler. If you were with me, we would have been ruling the Wizard Kingdom together." He stopped and looked away hoping Isidorus would become angry and he would ask them to leave his land. Then he said after a moment of silence when he failed to invoke any reaction from Isidorus, "You can go now. Adrianna is mine," he hissed.

"Vikra!" yelled Mihr. "Stop it and hand over Adrianna to us!"

This sudden outburst from Mihr irked Vikra but he smiled revealing his jaws and said, "You see I have a fight to attend. The daughter-in-law will face the father-in-law. Do you want to watch it?"