The bright light from outside of the throne room illuminating the place, hiding the person who stood in front of the gaping door. Marc reacted the quickest, he started to chant Replication Magic Missiles and aimed at the person. Yurika managed to get a glimpse of the person's silhouette. She felt like she had seen that posture somewhere.

‘Yurika close your eyes now!’

A gasp escaped Yurika lips the moment the voice entered her mind. She quickly reacted to the instruction and shut her eyes.

“Dazzling Burst!” The person shouted while throwing a couple of objects toward Marc and Zeke. Marc hasn’t finished chanting his skill when the objects exploded and filled the whole room with bright lights.

“My eyes!!” Zeke screamed almost at the same time with Marc grunted in pain because of the invading light. The sparks had seared their retinas and blinded them for a few seconds.

Yurika felt her hand was grabbed and dragged by someone. The person pulled her in a rush. Yurika kept her eyes closed while letting herself to be lead on. They were half running half walking at a fast pace. With closed eyes, it was harder to stop herself from bumping and stumbling to random objects. The person then decided to stop all of a sudden.

‘Open your eyes already. We need to move faster!’

"Wen?"

Yurika carefully opened her eyes. It took her a few seconds before her eyes getting used of the darkness surrounding them. The shadow started to take shapes that she could understand. She saw her best friend peering around cautiously. Wen had pulled her to a secluded corner. Looking around her surrounding Yurika tried to guess where they were. If she recalled Eireen's memory right, they should be standing at the west of the Palace courtyard.

“Wen, Why ar--?” asked Yurika. The purple haired girl leaped and covered Yurika's lips. Her blue eyes glared at her.

‘Shusssh! They could hear us! I don’t really have time to explain. We really need to go to my mount, before they find us.’

‘Sorry,' Yurika said using her telepathic, ‘Where did you hide it? Do you remember?’

‘… not really, but it should be somewhere around here,’ grumbled Wenona, ‘It’s better if I could use light magic to see in this darkness. But that would mean giving out our position to them.’

‘Do you remember any specific landmark of the place?’

Wen pouted and her brow gathered in a scowl. She was trying to remember any special sign she might have seen before.

‘I think I saw a bird painting on the ground or something like that.’

‘Blackbird barrack. It’s at the south of the Palace Court Yard. We got to turn around and go back there,’ Yurika said. She pointed out the direction. It was Eireen's old barrack. Wenona gazed at her best friend curiously.

‘You seemed to know this place well, Yuu. ’

Yurika gulped hard, ‘Ehm, Z told me a bit about this place. Speaking of which I should telepath him. We left him behind, we should have take hi—‘

‘No! I told you already I don’t trust him! There’s something odd about him Yuu. I can’t explain, but please trust me on this.’

‘Odd about him’ the words tickle Yurika’s strange feeling toward his ability with magic and teleport scroll. But she still wanted to believe in him. There should be some explanation behind his new found power. She would ask about it later, but for now, she decided to trust Wenona.

‘Okay, I won’t message him or response to any of his telepathy. Let’s go this way,’ She grabbed Wenona’s hand and carefully lead her toward the south of the Palace courtyard. They stopped a few times and hid on Wenona’s gesture. Her ability to sense Jace’s and the others' presence was flawless as if she was a walking life detector. After walking for around twenty-five minutes they reached Blackbird barrack safely.

‘There! Come on let’s go!’ Wen jumped gleefully and pointed at something hidden near the corner of the destroyed building. Yurika tried to figure out what was that strange shaped thing. It's floating low and bobbing softly whenever the wind blew. Her brain trying to dig out her memory of a floating mount; nothing came to her mind. As they moved closer the thing slowly revealed. When they finally close enough, Yurika’s jaw fell in shock. It was a giant kite.

Usually, a mount is a living being, like Hoiho or the great Azzax or the famous Nagantaka bird. The giant golden feathered bird is a rare mount and wanted by many, but it has been more than a decade since its disappearance. There was also another common mount, like the one Zeke and she had rented for ten silver each per day. The Grev’y Zee is one of the most common mounts. It runs in medium speed and has the ability to carry medium weight. It has a short mane, pointy ears, four short legs, and the leaf colored fur. Its tame and timid character made it impossible to be a war mount, but its ability to return home by its own is what made it good enough for rented mounts.

But what Yurika saw in front of her right now was nothing like she could imagine.

“What’s this?!”

“My beloved mount,” Wenona grinned proudly, “I created it.”

Yurika eyes widen in awe, “You created it?! How??”

Wenona didn’t answer her right away. Instead, she whipped her head toward the north side of where they were standing. She hissed angrily and quickly climbed up the mount.

“Come Yuu, we don’t have much time. They know we are here,” she said while offering her hand to Yurika. Yurika accepted and climbed up the kite.

The moment she sat on its smooth surface, it started to levitate at high speed and almost made her lose balance. Wen caught her in time before she toppled backward, falling from the magical mount.

“Hold on tight, we need to get out of this place fast,” said Wen; sounded half panic and half determined.

The cold air hit her eyes, for a few seconds she was blind, then they cleared just as fast. The moon escaped the cloud's embrace and revealed the palace ground below. Yurika watched her best friend with her blue eyes focused on controlling the kite they were on, flying in high speed, zig zag-ing pillars, and ledges. The cold air rushed past as they accelerated faster and faster.

“Wen, why are you here?” Yurika finally asked the question once more.

“Saving you of course,” she answered matter factly.

“Saving me? Eh??”

“Gezz Yuuu, stop asking questions! Don’t you see I am busy?” her desperate annoyed voice went high pitched because of a few flying fireballs flew too close to them, Yurika whirled her head to the back and saw the group that chasing them. Jace was chanting more fireballs to hurl at them. Lyall, Marc, and Amierra were running behind the golden-haired man. Zeke was falling behind but he was also on tail pursuing them.

”Wait, I don’t see--,” Yurika muttered and her eyes cautiously swept the area for the blue-purple gradient haired man, but before she finished her line the man suddenly materialized right in front of them and sprang in high speed at Wenona. She didn’t have the chance to dodge, the man was on top of her with his Poisonous Bagh Nakh pressed on her neck. Yurika yelped a little too late, she didn’t have the chance to warn Wenona about Scry.

“I knew it! Just some childish play,” he leered his sinister smile, “so now my little rodent, what trick and trap you have left in store? You got us in so much work and trouble before, I should punish you really h- AARGH!”

But before he finished his words, the kite they were on started to spin like a tornado hit it. It declined down so fast to the ground. Scry lost his balance and almost lost his chance of grabbing the end of the kite. He struggled to stay on the falling kite and shouted angry words at Wenona who held Yurika’s arm in time before she fell out from the kite.

“Tricks? Oh, Sir, I have so much more than you could think of,“ Wenona snickered with gleaming eyes, “hold on tight, Yuu!”

With that word her blue eyes sparkled, the kite started to stabilize and took where it was left off. Scry slowly pulled himself up. But before he managed to get fully unto the kite, the kite started to shake off to left and right in high speed and this time he lost his grip for good and fell backward out of the kite.

“YOU crazy woman, I am going to make you pay for this!” Scry's screaming angrily as he fell unto the ground below. Luckily it wasn't a far drop. The kite then picked back the speed and levitated higher.

Wenona chuckled in victory, “sure come and get me if you ca-- WOAH!”

Her victorious glee was cut off by some magic missiles that dashing closely to the kite. They almost hit the kite if Wenona didn’t see them at the last second.

“That’s dangerous! They really want to kill us!” She screamed while doing her best to control the kite in avoiding the scattered flying missiles. Then suddenly from the sky, they heard a loud noise of screeching Tolu birds. Yurika looked up to see the black feathered three eyes birds were gathering like a huge black cloud. Their beady eyes glinted hungrily at the girls on the kite. This must have been Amierra's doing, she had summoned the birds.

“Wen, we need to--, “ Yurika words were cut off when the bird one by one swopped down and with their sharp bent beak tore the kites part by part. The kite lost its ability to stay on the air and soon dove really fast toward the ground.

“No, My baby!!” Wen exclaimed, “We are going down!! Hold on tight YUUU!!”

Wen quickly regained her focus and composure. She chanted something that sounds like a foreign language to Yurika ears.

“ka whakakitea te moenga!” Wen said while raising her hand towards the ground, and suddenly a huge mattress appeared in front of them and caught them in time, saving them from splattering unto the ground. The mattress cushioned their fall and protected them from any possible injuries.

They bounced around a bit before finally stopped. Wenona quickly rose up from it and ready to jump off the mattress when dizziness stopped her movement.

“ugh I feel sick,” Wen muttered under her breath, her face was slowly losing its color, her hand touched her neck and felt a little sting there.

Yurika quickly checked on her best friend and saw there was a small purple-ish wound on her neck. She immediately knew that Scry’s Bagh Nakh was the cause. Wen was poisoned and no one else has the cure but the owner of the weapon.

“Let’s g-go we ne-need to ke-keep m-moving,” Wen forced herself to stand up, but her legs failed her. She fell back to the mattress and started to shiver all over her body.

“Urgh, th-this is b-bad. Go, Yuu don’t wo-worry about me,” she curled up in a ball like a cold kitten, “ru-run, sa-save yourself.”

"I can't do that! Wen, Wen?!" Yurika tried to pull her up. but Wenona has lost all her strength. Her body felt numb and cold.

“I sho-should have ta-taken Riddele advi-vice of s-studying a little bit of Priest class ability,” Wenona deliriously mumbled while her shivering lips started to go blue and her aqua eyes slowly became empty.

'No! I am going to lose Wen if I don't do anything! But what?! I don’t have the cure?!'

Yurika was panic. She couldn't leave Wen there to die, even after she told her to run. Then a decision flickered on her eyes. She gritted her teeth and quickly chanted,

“Purify!”

She knew the skill wouldn’t be enough against Scry’s poison, but it would delay the deadly effect to buy her some time. Enough time for her to get the cure from the one man who she wished to avoid the most.

Yurika looked up and saw the group quickly closing in, but she had made her decision. She couldn’t think of another way to save Wenona’s life. She carefully took out Fetuu La Rossa from her secret pocket. She glanced at the glimmering taunting red stone for one last time. Closing her hand over it, she then took a deep breath. Preparing her heart and mind for what she was about to do.

Raising her hand high in front of her past friends and foes and with a puffed up chest, she gazed directly into each and everyone's eyes. Her expression was sovereign and determined.

“I am Yurika an orphan and a nobody but Fetuu La Rossa has chosen me, please hear my plea!”