Sirius was humming while walking towards the hill. His relaxed demeanour was in contrast to the girl walking in front of him. The girl, Adhara, was walking with measured steps with her back straight. She showed confidence and grace with each step she took. There was a distance of around ten steps between the two of them.

“Many people are watching us from the shadows,” Sirius said half-heartedly. He knew that they were of no concern to him as none of them was strong enough to pose a threat. Well, if they all came as a group, then it might be different.

Adhara kept walking without speaking a word. She never put any attention to the words that Sirius said.

“You know, you’re the only I’ve met so far who hasn’t freaked out after hearing my name,” Sirius said.

For the first time in a while, Adhara slowed her steps down and turned towards Sirius, “It’s a given. Meeting the Heir of Frye is a matter of honour.”

“Why is that so?”

“Why are you asking me that? Do you not know your family history?”

“I do know that the Sword God was a Frye, but that shouldn’t be the only reason why my name gets such attention.”

Adhara kept walking with slow steps. The breeze was cool and the oppressing forest looked feeble to these two. The eyes watching them were concerned to look at Adhara and Sirius being friendly and yet, all they could do was wait and bide their time. Adhara couldn’t notice them from so far away, but Sirius’ range of perception was exceptional. Even during his nonchalant walk, he had an accurate grasp of his surroundings. Well, Adhara never cared enough about the scared people watching from a distance. So, she continued to talk to Sirius.

“The only family to have blood ties with a Star. A family that has existed since the beginning of written history. A family that has produced some of the most powerful and influential people throughout generations is bound to attract the attention it deserves. You should have been drowned in nobles’ praises ever since your childhood. In every celebration and every ball, you should have been the centre of attention. So I find it difficult to understand how you aren’t used to this yet,” Adhara answered patiently.

Sirius chuckled in embarrassment while scratching the back of his head. He realized that he had quite a different childhood than other noble children. The only celebration he ever went to was Nora’s birthday and even there, only his mother was getting attention. He never interacted with any other noble ever since his birth and coming out to the world made him open his eyes a bit.

“I see. Thank you for explaining,” Sirius said.

Adhara stopped her steps and looked into Sirius’ greenish orange eyes. She took a moment before saying, “You are quite strange. High Nobles don’t speak politely to commoners, let alone thanking them. Well, let me give you a piece of advice. Don’t trust others easily. There will be many people who will try to get close to you, for reasons unknown. Try to filter out the horrid people and find ones who would actually care about you.”

“Why do you say that?” Sirius asked.

“People like to cling to the guarantees of success, and the heir of Frye is a title that makes it almost a guarantee that you would be someone great in the future. Your future deeds and actions are already written by the Heavens. It is your destiny.”

“Doesn’t that mean that my actions aren’t in my hands, my accomplishments won’t be mine and I’m just a puppet unaware of the strings attached to me?” Sirius’ voice had gone soft and his eyes narrowed a bit. Saying that his freedom wasn’t his to enjoy, had angered him a bit.

“You seem to have lived a sheltered life, Heir of Frye. Even if something like destiny never existed, people’s freedom was never in their hands. For weak people, destiny is just the whims of the ones above them. For commoners, the nobles are their gods and for the nobles, the High Nobles fulfil that spot. You would know that if you ever got out of your silk and satin, and looked around in the filth of the poor.”

Adhara kept looking at Sirius and continued, “The fact that you would get angry at just the notion of your freedom being denied, proves that you are nothing but a pampered child of High Nobility. How disappointing, Heir of Frye. I had even started thinking somewhat highly of you.”

As soon as Adhara finished speaking, she turned around and dashed towards the hill. There wasn’t any reason for her to stay with Sirius in the first place.

Sirius remained standing still while looking at the departing back of Adhara. His mind had stopped working for a moment after listening to the harsh words of the stranger. He realized that this was probably the very first time that he had been chided this much by someone. While Mehr would also say sarcastic things to him, he never truly questioned Sirius’ character.

Sirius felt a rising lump in his throat and his breathing became heavy. He was angry, not at Adhara but himself. He realized that he had been looking at things from a very narrow perspective and he needed to broaden his horizons. While he never truly discriminated against commoners like his fellow nobles, he never cared for them either. He understood his shortcomings and clenched his fists as he vowed to make himself a better person. His feet moved on their own towards the hill that had gotten extremely close by now.

****

Adhara could see the foot of the hill not so far away from her. She had dashed rapidly after leaving Sirius behind. Her left hand was still horribly mangled but she never put a single thought to it. She had already applied mana to the injury and the bleeding had stopped. That was enough for her. She noticed a path up the hill between a stretch of trees. She realised that the path was also a perfect place for a trap. However, that didn’t matter. Even though she didn’t have as long-range influence over mana as Sirius had, she knew she was unbeatable in close quarters. The Heavens’ gift she had received was the epitome of abilities.

And so she moved forward single-mindedly. As soon as she crossed the stretch of trees, innumerable mana projectiles were thrown at her. Many of the survivors had created a makeshift mana barrier and the others were getting ready to get close to Adhara at any given moment.

“The bitch is finally alone.”

“We need to finish this fast. The Heir of Frye is also taking the same path.”

“This vile maggot was walking hand in hand with the Heir of Frye. She should know her fucking place.”

Even though their words made light of Adhara, their actions were swift and strong. The warriors had already jumped into the fray as soon as the projectiles hit her. Dirt flew everywhere and the visions of the survivors were muddy. However, they knew how to increase their range of perception through mana. And so they did.

One of the survivors had moved in instantly while wielding his sword. He had covered his sword in as much mana as he could and swung the sword with the force of a fierce gale. His compatriots had also moved in from other directions. A girl with daggers clad in mana, and a boy wielding a scythe had also moved in instantly. The survivors that were good at ranged attacks were standing a bit farther away, closely scrutinizing the battle. They had to start attacking as soon as ‘The Calamity’ was visible again.

That was when a harrowing scream rang out in the forest. Everyone present was expecting to hear the scream, but not of a boy. They all noticed that specks of lights had risen within the cloud of dust and gulped. They knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Everyone was aware of the strength Adhara had shown against Hope Woodrow’s group. But not one expected the events unfolding at this very moment.

Within the dust cloud, the silhouettes of survivors were being ripped apart. The attacks weren't visible to anyone. All they could see were the bodies being cut apart from the middle without any hesitation. Anyone who moved towards the center of the dust cloud, would come out as a pile of flesh. 6 people had jumped in the battle, and the pieces of their bodies were thrown out of the dust cloud.

They noticed a shadow slowly walking out. Adhara gradually became visible as she moved out of the dust. Her face was still emotionless and serene, even with the many small injuries it had. Her body was also visible through the tattered clothes that couldn’t cover anything properly. She walked towards one of the corpses, and before they could turn into specks of light, she took the shirt off of it. The corpse turned into specks of light but the bloody shirt didn’t. Adhara put the shirt on and looked at the survivors that had surrounded her.

The survivors were already slowly backing away from her. They had seen once again how devastatingly powerful she was, and their hopes were slowly being crushed.

“Shit. Gabe and others must have reached the badge by now. We only need to stall for a bit more time.” The girl that had been directing other survivors declared, “Try to stay alive as much as you ca-”

Her words stopped mid sentence as she noticed that Adhara had blurred past a distance and showed up near the survivors close to her. As soon as she got close, the closest person to her screamed. He was levitating almost a meter off the ground and was slowly being crushed by an invisible force. His head was going out of shape rapidly and his eyes were popping out of their sockets. As his screams became unbearable, the other survivors attacked Adhara out of pure terror. To get rid of the horror in their hearts, they needed to take action.

And yet, nothing changed. Every survivor that had attacked her, was being crushed now. And like a symphony of terror, all of their skulls popped at once. The chill-inducing screams stopped abruptly and the blood droplets flew around Adhara.

Survivors in the distance choked up watching the scene and many started puking their guts out.

“You’re right.” Adhara said, in her emotionless cold voice, “Maggots should know their place.”