Three attackers, likely unaware of each other's presence, converged on her. With the two already here, that was five. A decent number to fight.

Fire surrounded her as she closed her eyes, relying only on her senses. Fire wasn't the greatest shield, but it confused others. And tended to make them avoid close combat. As long as she didn't have to engage physically, she was confident in defeating them.

Three collections of mana arrived, hovering over the clearing. The two from before had not reacted yet. Perhaps they had decided to observe. Althea kept herself alert, regretting sacrificing her ability to see now. Fire did tend to be a tad too bright.

The first attack came from behind her, a burst of water. An irritant. That was not the real attack, just something to weaken her defenses and keep her occupied. At least the three new arrivals had decided to work together. Or they were a team to begin it.

More attacks headed towards her, mere irritants that did little damage to her defenses. Althea smiled. Probing meant that her opponents were stronger and more intelligent than the contenders she had faced before. If she let them attack, perhaps they could come up with something that could threaten her.

The attacks continued, increasing in frequency and power as they continued. The three of them were whittling down her defenses and mana reserves, presuming that she would not have more mana than three of them. That might be true if she were a normal mage. But she recovered her mana faster than them. So fast that she gained mana faster than she spent it. There was little threat of her losing this way.

Groaning at the slow pace, she decided to react. The fire turned blue as she jumped into the air, spinning fire around her. The fire spread outward, expanding like a disk as it cut towards her opponents. As expected, they had positioned themselves around her to coordinate a joint attack against her defenses.

The three of them jumped up, avoiding the fire. Althea raised the ground into jagged spikes, hidden by the fire. As they fell down, they would find themselves pierced by them. Of course, that was only if they were careless.

Thankfully, her opponents were not. Water, fire, and Earth mana emerged from their feet, destroying her formations. A smile stretched across her face at that. Having capable opponents was such an excellent thing.

The attacker to her right stepped forward as she tensed in reply. What were they trying now? Would this finally be-

"I am Gerard Selnor of the Elemental Sect." the boy bowed. "If I may have the honor of knowing your name, my lady?"

Althea sighed. The three of them were trying for peace now that they were sure they couldn't defeat her. Perhaps intelligent opponents weren't good after all.

"I am the Althea Diery of the Solerian Empire." she said, not mentioning her title. There was no need too.

The boy froze, and then bowed to her. "I am pleased to make your grace's acquaintance. Please forgive us for our brazen attack."

The boy remained bowing, puzzling her.

"Please raise your head. I can hardly fault you for walking into a trap I set."

Now that she thought of it, where did the other two go? Althea looked around, surprised to see that her previous attackers had fled. Was she really that scary?

"A trap?" the boy froze. "I fear the three of us haven't been able to-"

Althea waived his comment away. There was no way they would tell her, even if they did have anything nice.

"I was more interested in the combat than the loot. There is little here I cannot buy."

The boy nodded. "So you are looking to breakthrough then, your grace."

"Yes, are you aware of anything nearby that might help? I am still unsure of where exactly I am in the Hidden Land."

"Thankfully, we appear to have landed near the Lake of Alto." A smile was stretching across the boy's face as Althea narrowed her eyes. The Lake of Alto was named after the candidate that massacred a tremendous amount of other candidates to gain the fruits growing near the lake. A special kind of fruit that helped one breakthrough, regardless of element.

"How can you be so sure?" she asked. The Hidden Land rearranged itself every time they came in, there were times when the lake had been underground and inaccessible.

The metal tower she had just jumped off was probably something that had been hidden for a time. And it looked like it was the only one of its kind around. With how unlikely people were to share information of anything found in this place, it was no wonder it was unknown to her.

"A person found it some time ago. I reckon half the island felt the spacial waves from him defeating a defender." Gerard replied.

Althea's eyebrows furrowed in suspicion. A defender was a powerful beast that protected and often feasted on the fruits, but one was usually subtle when defeating them. After all, defenders were a tell-tale indication that the Lake of Alto was here. And then you would have to deal with anyone that wanted a fruit…which was pretty much everyone.

"Come on, we shall head over. The area is likely a trap, we shall approach with caution." she said. "I shall take the first fruit, you three can divide the others among yourselves."

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The fruit only worked once, like most of the magical materials on this island. That was likely why Gerard could not stop smiling. A powerful ally like her meant that they had a better chance of getting fruits.

Gerard nodded as he followed along her, his strangely bright yellow hair floating in the air. Althea tried not to stare at it. Floating hair was something she hadn't seen before. Was it due to mana? Was it some kind of genetic trait passed down through families? Or a sign of high affinity? Glowing eyes were the most common version of those, but floating hair would fit right in.

The other two were normal looking as far as she could see. Black hair, black eyes, far too pale a face. The continent was too northern for variations in skin tone. From what she knew, the southern continent was different.

The forest was strange, even among the magical kind. Three trees seemed to randomly grow sparse and then suddenly so close together that they blocked vision. A tropical rainforest, temperate woods and prairie seemed to have merged together. Perhaps that was exactly what had happened.

Three separate forests had been on the island, and then been randomly shoved around during rearrangement. Why there were three terrains eluded her, perhaps it was needed for magical reasons. Mana was strange and at times acted in very whimsical ways.

"The lake should be just ahead." one of the other two said.

"What are your names?" she asked, sensing ahead. The space ahead appeared no different to her senses, but that could easily be an illusion. Or they were lost.

"I am Hei of the Elemental Sect." the one who had spoken before said. "And this is my brother Sun."

Althea raised an eyebrow. "The two of you are from the southern continent?" And here she would have put them as northerners based on looks alone.

"Yes." the boy offered no further explanation. Well, it was not her place to pry into their affairs.

"I cannot sense anything strange ahead, but that could be an illusion." Gerard interrupted.

"Yes, I also didn't detect anything different." Althea agreed. "I would recommend proceeding in an alert state."

"I would suggest not using fire, your grace." Hei interjected, his voice having a strange accent that told her that he had once spoken a different language. "The forest is rather dense here."

"Yes, I shall use other elements." Althea didn't mention what element she would use, for she did not know that herself. That would depend entirely on what the enemy used.

The four of them stepped through the trees, spreading open the vines blocking their vision every five meters. The trees did not clear up, but instead grew more dense. So dense that they had to pass in a single line. Not at all like how trees usually grew. Even she knew that.

There might not be any strange mana activity, but it was certainly a strange location.

Althea kept herself alert, proceeding slowly as she made sure to keep an eye on any nearby vines. There were far, far too many of them. If any of the vines were beasts, or there was a plant using mage nearby, it could easily overwhelm her.

The trees grew even closer, they now had to carefully maneuver through the spaces to pass through. How were the trees even surviving? There wasn't enough space for their canopy to grow.

But magic was magic, and it often ignored the laws of science.

"Is there any point in continuing? The trees will only grow more dense until we cannot pass through them.” Hei said.

"I don't think so." Sun replied, looking at the latest opening. As the largest of them, he had been having the most trouble going through. Now, the space is too small to fit in.

"Perhaps we should separate-" Gerard began

"I do not think going forward has any point either." she said. "Not in this direction at least. The trees make it all but impossible to pass through."

"Burn it." Sun suggested, as she felt him call on fire mana. "That should clear them away."

"I wouldn't recommend it." she interrupted. "The trees are clearly magical, even if we can't sense it. If they turn out to be more powerful than us, we could die. The magics meant to teleport us out are not invincible."

"The three of us are Journeymen." Gerard stated, his doubt clear. Master stages were too rare in the continent, the thought of so many Master stage trees might be unimaginable to him.

Althea rolled her eyes.

"This island is from a time when Grandmasters were as common as Masters are today. The Diery family had over a hundred thousand Master stages at that time. There are records of a species of tree-like creatures among them."

Sun looked around in alarm. "Did they look like this?"

"No, there were few of them even then, and they supposedly died out during the War of Continents."

"Perhaps we should head back." Hei proposed.

"Can you communicate with 'em?" Gerard asked. "I hear Druid had the ability-"

"I can communicate with creatures that have mild telepathic abilities." she interrupted. "But initiating a connection with a non-telepathic creature is an Adept level ability. I will not have it for several years yet."

Gerard groaned. "Then we've gotta head back. This was a waste of time."

Althea wasn't so sure about that. The forest was mysterious, and it seemed to be protecting whatever lay beyond the trees. Perhaps they would simply have to find another way in.

The way back was considerably faster, as they did not have to maintain the same level of alertness as before. And the trees seemed to be spaced wider this time. Althea was sure of it. The trees were making it easier for them to leave, a sure sign that the forest had some amount of sentience.

A living metal and now a sentient forest. What was this sect's focus element again? Perhaps she should have researched that more.

An explosion occurred within her senses, at the very edge of the forest.

"There is a fight ahead." she warned, finding her companions already ready for battle. The three of them must have decent senses too.

"The mana emanations are very powerful." Gerard noted. "Can we circle around?'

"No." Althea said, sensing ahead. "The fight looks like a battle royale."

"A what?" Sun asked.

"A fight where basically everyone in the vicinity fights over something. I think some valuable object was discovered here." she said, trying to sense it.

"I concur. " Hei said.

"Do we want to wait?" Gerard asked.

"No." Sun and Althea replied together.

"The object is clearly valuable. And I, for one, am here for valuable objects."

Gerard raised his eyebrow at her arrogant statement. Althea just shrugged. There were a lot of people fighting, yes, but she was powerful. And if she didn't fight for things, then she wouldn't get them.

"I would suggest going into hiding.” Hei interrupted, “The victor of this…battle royale appears to be heading in our direction, and they are being pursued."

Althea nodded along with the others as she took to the trees. Now it was time to wait.