The two of them were panting and sweating. Adrianna removed the light from around him and kneeled on the ground. Shang Kui stayed flat on the ground for a while, his breathing was ragged.

Adrianna pulled her hands over her face. Her shoulders slumped. She expected more coordination from these wizards. Enya came to her and held her from behind. "I am sorry," she whispered.

​​

Shang Kui got up and sat on the ground near her. Blood was trickling out of his mouth. He spat some near him. His temper seemed to control a little. This path of life had always been challenging for him. He wiped the blood with his shirt's sleeve and got up. He ambled away and took a deep breath. Only a Wizard as powerful as Adrianna could bring him back, else he was unstoppable. He admired her strength inside but didn't show that on the outside. He was clearly pretty upset with her.

Adrianna caught up her breath, removed her hands from her face and said, "Instead of creating a high drama here, I expected you to use your energy to something more constructive. If you feel you can't control yourself, please go to the palace and soothe down. Perception is everything at the moment. I need a lot of coordination from all of you."

Shang Kui stopped walking. He swung around and said reproachfully, "Adrianna, I am only trying to help you out. Let me go there and kill them all. Don't you even believe in my strength as the King of the Eastern Wizard Realm?"

Adrianna got up to her feet with Enya's help. She revealed, "Ziu has laid a large number of high-tech booby traps. If you step even on one of them, not only you will be killed, you might trigger a chain reaction for all around you and those in the kingdom to be killed."

There were mixed reactions from everyone present out there. A mixture of repugnance and fear arose. Things were beyond comprehension. Ziu had really gone mad. Shang Kui grimaced. He wanted to look away but couldn't. "Is he-?" His word dried up mid-sentence as terror roiled in his guts. He shook his head as though in denial of what he just heard. He placed his fingertips against his open mouth. "Oh, so that was the reason you stopped me?" he said in a slow voice. He brought the back of his hand to his nose and looked away.

"Yes," she replied. "An ill-timed footstep or a sudden movement of a seemingly mild object can trigger something lethal."

"So are we going to just sit here and wait for Ziu to keep using his powers to destroy us?"

"No. But we have to be careful," she replied. "I need Enya on the eastern frontier right now."

"Okay," he answered. "And what about me?"

"Just wait. I want to see how events unfold."

"Hmm." Shang Kui walked away.

Adrianna briefed Mihr, "At present the soldiers on this side haven't been given orders for action by Ziu. I am waiting for Inyanga to break open all the seals in the General's cell. When that would be done, he would be able to instruct his troops to get out from there. Until then stay quiet and don't do anything."

"Yes my Queen."

"Let them be the first ones to open fire because I am hoping that they would wait for the orders from their General, which would delay them." She really counted on that because she knew that the soldiers were now taking direct orders from Ziu. However, the only hope was that Ziu was fighting on the other side and so she had to stall him as much as possible.

"Let's go Enya," she said. Enya held her hand and the two got sucked in a vortex. They appeared on the eastern border. Adrianna watched how Isidorus and other Mozia were creating thunder and storm and rains to douse the fire. Dmitri was standing behind along with other werewolves. The rains had drenched them all to the skin.

"Are we able to extinguish even a little part over there?" she asked walking up to Dmitri.

His face was contorted with worry. He kept his hand across her shoulders. "No. There's no luck so far." He paused for a moment and said, "I feel for all those who live in that forest."

Adrianna's heart went out for them. They were her silent supporters. She vowed to take revenge on this wizard for them. She looked towards Enya who nodded. Her broom came right next to her.

"Do you need help?" Adrianna enquired.

"Not for now. But I am going to stall him for now. I am going to hold the show for as long as necessary. Try to create as much water as possible for I can use only that for my magic to work." Enya was aware of the limitations of her magic.

She brought her hand forward and using the water that was pouring around her, she created the portal. She vanished in a second under the spell of invisibility.

When Enya reached outside, she noticed that the forest was burning a ghastly orange and red. The flames had turned loose. They devoured everything hungrily that came in the way charring and killing them. There were painful shrieks of animals. The trees that once loomed large with pride, now fell with loud creaking sounds. The fire stripped them of their visceral beauty. It filled her with anger. She flew above the fire and smoke, and noticed how Ziu had created a bubble around him and the soldiers that were assisting him. They were not large in number.

She looked above and realized that no amount of rain would decrease the intensity of fire. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the droplets of the rain that were falling in front of her. She focused on the one that was most important, that was the largest. As soon as she identified it, she opened her eyes. Time went in slow motion for her. She could see every droplet of water now, the biggest one right in front of her eyes. She narrowed her eyes. Using the surrounding energy, Enya froze that drop. All other drops started to merge with this one. Soon a small pellet of ice was formed. This action triggered a sequence. While everything was extremely slow for Enya, in reality the water around her converted into sheets of ice within a few seconds. The sheets cracked not able to bear the weight and they fell in large chunks on the ground.

---

When the huge ice boulder hit the bubble in which Ziu and the soldiers were standing, the soldiers crouched in fear as if the boulder would hit them. However, it fragmented into hundreds of pieces as it bounced off the bubble. It fell on the ground and was engulfed by fire. However, the intensity with which ice fell started to increase. Ziu was shocked. He thought that Adrianna had come to counter his spell on the outside. He scorned and muttered under his breath, "You are clever Adrianna. I never taught you this magic. But don't worry I won't back down with this puny stuff. In fact, I am going to catch you or kill you." Saying that he held his wand high up to the dark grey skies. The wand leashed deadly orange light that pierced the next ice rock that was about to fall of them and sped upwards.