"Guh, it still feels like my mouth is on fire," I complained as we walked out of the Royal Army's headquarters. "Honestly, I can't believe Princess Lucia actually put something that horrifyingly spicy as one of the snacks! Seriously, why would she do something like that?! I almost thought I would die! I even spewed fire out of my freaking mouth in a panic right after eating it! Just what the heck did she put inside it?!"

"Pretty sure it's because it had one of those infamous Ignifera-exclusive chilis," Vin explained, frowning. "For some reason, the chili that grows in this kingdom sometimes seem to have varying concentrations of fiery elemental energy in them, leading to them having differing effects. Regarding the spice used in the snack you got though, it increases the spiciness by a lot and temporarily lets you breathe fire. Thankfully, they did something to it before putting it out as a consumable so it won't actually cause you harm. As to why they would put that unique chili of all things into food though..."

"To put it simply, it's basically to spice up our lives," Rufus continued as he grinned at us. "To the people here in Ignifera, eating delicious food is nice and all but a lot of us are daredevils, you know? We want to try out new things and live life without any regrets. Because of that, we experiment around with our food and then test it out by devouring it ourselves. That snack you ate was one of our successful products that got overwhelming support from the public."

Leo nervously laughed at that. "Seriously? Man, you guys are built different, that's for sure..." the blonde commented and I quickly nodded my head in agreement. "I'll be honest though, with how shitty my luck can be at times, I'm so glad I didn't get that one earlier ago. It would've been super awkward for me if I just started panicking and breathing fire while you guys were investigating away. I definitely wouldn't be able to live that down..."

It would've been quite the sight to behold too. I thought to myself with a small smile. Though, it would also completely ruin the mood and I'd probably have to help out Leo, leaving the investigation to Vin. A part of me wondered if I should tease him about that but quickly decided not to. Not only would it backfire on me since I'm the victim instead of him, now wasn't the best time to fool around. Time is ticking and there are still a lot of things we need to do. For now, we'll have to stop getting sidetracked and get moving.

"Alright, I hope you guys don't mind but let's get back to the issue at hand," I remarked, clapping my hands together to get their attention. "First, Leo needs to get a weapon of some sort, just in case we need to fight. Since Vin already got the details regarding the spear while I was eating, we just need to go to the places that Princess Lucia recommended."

"Got it. I'll go ahead and lead the way then," Rufus said, then walks away as Idalia nervously trails behind him. "Please keep an eye out for them as we slowly get closer to the secret base."

The three of us quickly follow the orange-haired soldier and continue our discussion as we walked. "If it takes too long to find one close to his usual weapon, I'll just make use of my Metal affinity and create one using the metals I have at hand," Vin commented, then let out a sigh. "I'd rather not though since I normally use them to make ammunition if I happen to be low. Not only does creating a weapon use so much metal, getting my hands on some decent ones is a pain, especially when I need a lot of them..."

"If we have to resort to that, could you make it look cool?" Leo asked as he turned his attention to Vin, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. "As both a boy and an adventurer, I'd like to look dashing and awesome, you know? Besides, if we're gonna be heroes, might as well look the part, right?"

"I suppose you have a point there but...do you have a weapon design ready for me to use as a reference? Making one on the spot is kinda tedious," the blue-haired archangel asked, glancing at the grinning blonde. "Not only that, I have no idea what you would consider as 'cool' since that's pretty subjective. My definition of 'cool' might not match yours, you know."

Leo remained quiet for a bit but soon rubbed the back of his neck as he lets out a nervous chuckle. "Er...no? I'm no good at drawing so there's no way I would have a design on me. I'm like at...stick figure level," he admitted, his cheeks red from embarrassment. "Is it alright if I leave it in your capable hands instead? I mean, judging from the outfit you're wearing, you have good fashion taste, right...?"

"...fine but you better not complain to me that you want it redone when I give it to you, got it?" Vin said, frowning. "I'm not going through the hassle of constantly modifying it until you're satisfied. It's both a waste of our time and my mana. We have more urgent stuff to do than care about our appearance."

As the blonde happily nodded his head, I turned my attention elsewhere and decided to take in our surroundings out of curiosity. The buildings around us were similar to the headquarters we were in and were at least intact compared to the ruins I spotted earlier ago. There were still some people walking about, buying merchandise from the stalls nearby, but most of them seemed to be on guard unsurprisingly. In fact, it seems they all had something that can be used as weapons on them. With the current circumstances, better to be safe than sorry. I thought to myself. The cultists could appear at any time and cause havoc so best to be ready for a fight at any moment.

I glanced at the stores around us as we walked, noting that none of the names that the stores had were familiar to me. Just to make sure I was remembering them right, I opened the notepad that I had at hand and flipped the pages until I reached the one with the list Lucia made. I silently checked it out, too focused to really pay much attention to the discussion that the others were having. Looks like I got the general gist of them at the very least. I will admit though, isn't some of these names a little weird? For example, there's one here that seems...really questionable. I admit, they're pretty gutsy to do that but...

With a shake of my head, I quickly checked on the others, hoping for some kind of distraction from this revelation. Thinking about it any further will probably fry my brain and make me enter "brain has shut down, please wait for it to reboot" mode. Thankfully, Vin and the others were talking about the Guardians but it seems I missed out on some details. Guess I'll have to ask them later on about it. If there was anything important that I missed, I'm sure they wouldn't mind telling me. Without further ado, I immediately paid close attention to what they were saying.

"As far as I know, according to Princess Lucia, none of the Guardians have been acting strange lately. After all, as the crown heir, anything regarding the Academy and the Guardians falls in her purview," Rufus answers with a frown. "However, she did caution us to be on guard in case they managed to hide their scheming really well. Because of the people she sometimes deals with as royalty, she's familiar with schemers, liars, and all that."

Vin crosses his arms over his chest and hums in response. "So that explains why she personally went to the Academy instead of leaving it to the others to investigate," he commented. "By the way, speaking of which, does the princess have anything on her to communicate to us if anything were to happen or if she found something urgent?"

The orange-haired male nods his head and points to the device in his ear. "For someone like her, she has a unique channel to use, specifically designed to deal with certain obstructions," the soldier responded, grinning. "As to what, I can't exactly tell since it's supposed to be a secret."

Although he didn't mention it, I and probably the others assumed that by "certain obstructions", he meant spells designed to prevent long-distance communication. As to how they achieved that, I figured some magic was involved in it but wasn't entirely sure what. Whatever it may be using, it probably doesn't make use of magic taught by the Academy. I wonder, is it perhaps magecraft exclusive to those in Ignifera? I thought to myself with a frown. After all, I doubt the institution would have knowledge of all the spells that have ever existed. It would be an impossible feat to accomplish anyways.

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"Understandable. Besides, curious as I may be, there's no need to tell us," Vin remarked. "As long as we can get updates from her as soon as possible, that's all that matters. Any of the information she could possibly get might be important and change what we'll need to do."

"If you don't mind me changing the topic, can I ask if you guys had to deal with people transforming into monsters here?" Leo asked as he glanced at Rufus, worried. "There have been issues of that kind in both Astrum and in Gaia so I've been wondering if that's the case for Ignifera too."

The soldier shook his head, catching us off-guard. "We have yet to deal with something like that as far as I know," he answered with a frown. "The only problem we had so far was the cultists going on a rampage, burning everything within sight. Besides, from what Crown Princess Lucia told me way back then, the people in Astrum were completely fine before they suddenly turned, implying the cause was different. The fact that the cultists are losing their sanity like the ones in Gaia means they're connected."

Leo remained quiet for a bit as if deep in thought but eventually let out a sigh. "I guess? My knowledge of magecraft is lacking so...I can't exactly help out much," the angel admitted, rubbing the back of his neck while looking away sheepishly. "That said, since we're now talking about those incidents, does the Academy teach transformation magic? Or is it considered forbidden to learn them...?"

"They don't really teach us but as to why, I'm not exactly sure," Vin responded as he crossed his arms over his chest. "As far as I know, I don't think it's because it's forbidden. It's more like they don't know it so they can't exactly teach it, weird as that may be. That's the kind of impression I got from the professors when they were asked about that while I was there."

"So it's probably magecraft that only a particular group or kingdom knows then, just like how it is with our Guardians," Idalia quietly said, causing Vin, Leo, and I to look at her in surprise. "To give context, from what I've been told, Guardians primarily focus on Fire magic since that's considered the most important element in our culture."

"If that's the case then, it would either be connected to the Umbral Kingdom or Gaia," I noted, frowning. "Those are the only two that I could potentially see having any values related to that. As to why, the country of Gaia is connected to the element Nature and the monsters are technically part of the natural ecosystem. For the Umbral Kingdom though, they're tied to the element Darkness so...maybe something related to one's dark side or inner demons? It's just a guess but..."

For some reason, Rufus bit his lip in response to that and averted his eyes elsewhere, a troubled expression on his face. "...from that conjecture, I would assume it's related to someone from the Umbral Kingdom then," the orange-haired soldier remarked. "If it really is connected to that place, I'm worried that our beloved homeland might suffer the same fate as that country..."

As Leo tried his best to assure the guy that everything will be alright since we're here, I couldn't help but look down at the ground as we walked, feeling my heartbeat get faster at the thought of finally confronting the one responsible for Umbral's downfall. As a Devourer, I have the advantage over mages but...I had a feeling that wouldn't be enough. I may be able to consume spells to gain mana but I can be overwhelmed if the spell is strong enough or if there's too much energy to erase in time. Plus, there's only so much mana that a human body and soul could hold before it starts having adverse effects.

On top of that, the fact that the kingdom is still covered in darkness even now bothered me. It was proof that they were that strong. Would I even have a fighting chance against them? I've experienced going into magical territories like Tatsuya's or that battle simulator but...both of them weren't designed to immediately kill anyone in it ruthlessly. If we don't figure out how to deal with that, then won't we just...? Before I could continue sinking deeper into despair, I felt someone gently put a hand on my shoulder.

I glanced to see who it was and saw Vin standing there, his violet eyes looking serious as usual but also strangely sad. "...don't worry so much. At this rate, it'll only cripple you from doing anything," the archangel commented. "Besides, don't forget that both Raghnall and Rex are here too. Knowing how prepared Rex tends to be, he should have something in mind to deal with that overwhelming darkness and make sure we're capable of fighting back. So for now, let's do what we can, alright?"

I couldn't help but smile and nod my head, feeling slightly stupid that I forgot about those two. "Right, even though we don't see those two, they're most likely helping out as much as they can, huh?" I stated with a small laugh. "All I can do is put my faith in them and as you said, do what we can. Instead of worrying myself sick, we should hurry up and get things done."

"If that's the case, I found one of the places that Princess Lucia recommended!" Leo exclaimed and I looked at him in surprise. "It's a fancy cool name so I definitely would remember this!"

He was standing in front of a store with a grin on his face while Rufus and Idalia were right beside him, talking to each other about something. The large sign with its fiery borders above the blonde had the name 'Embers of Humanity' written fancily on it and from peering through the windows, I could see the various equipment that they had up for sale.

As the blue-haired mage pulled his hand away, I decided to check on Vin out of curiosity and he quickly looked away in response. However, I did notice that his ears were slightly red, probably from embarrassment at being caught by others. When I giggled to myself, it turned even redder and he awkwardly coughed to himself.

"R-right! Since we're here, we might as well separate for the sake of efficiency," Vin remarked, clearly trying to put attention away from himself. "After all, there's no need to have all of us go inside the shop so only Leo and I will go. Stella, Rufus, and Idalia, on the other hand, will go to the base of that certain organization."

"Makes sense! I have no qualms with that!" Leo replied as he gave us a thumbs-up while the other two nodded their heads in agreement. "Stella did beat me in battle before so I'm sure she'll be alright! And don't worry, I won't use that as an excuse to take too long here in the store. Besides, it's kinda hard to fool around with Vin since he's so serious. I mean, I would like to tease him regarding what just happened but..."

"That's because this isn't the time to do so?" Vin retorted while he walked towards the store and then opened the entrance door.

"But keeping up morale is good too! After all, it's important to wind down from time to time, you know!" Leo complained as he followed behind him. "Before shit hits the fan, at least let me be a little carefree!"

I chuckled a bit at their antics as the two boys went inside and soon turned my attention toward Rufus and Idalia. "Guess we better get going. Time is of the essence after all. Besides, someone might attempt to erase any information inside that base so we should hurry."

With that, the three of us silently walked toward our destination. ...while I mentally cursed myself for not knowing what to say to break the silence.