After a week Vannesa finally deemed him fit for combat. So they were going to the emperor’s castle. Apparently it was in an underground city - the City of the Lights. So that was where they were heading. There was two entrances, one on the east side of the Great Mountain and one on the west side. The tunnels were up the Great Mountain so they would have to do some climbing. They were going to the west side because despite the east side being a little closer to them, the west side was easier to climb up. They started their walk through the forest of ice.

"Hey, Vannesa, what is the plan for us to defeat the emperor anyway?" Luke asked.

"Well, the emperor has the plasma affinity which is sort of like a powered up fire affinity. Luckily it doesn’t provide burn resistance like a fire affinity does. So while he is strong offensively he doesn’t have the ability to defend well against your powers. I think, that with the castle made of wood, we collapse it, and I push all the chunks toward the emperor with my power, and then you light it on fire. This won’t be enough, so then we merely pummel at him with attacks. To get the emperor weak enough I will clash with him while you build a huge fireball, and then throw it at him." Vannesa explained lengthily.

"Got it." Luke said. That was complicated, but luckily his role wasn’t that hard.

They walked for another hour before Vannesa said, "Hey, Luke. I’m a little cold."

"Oh," Luke said. He made a flame in his hand and made it float by Vannesa.

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"Thank you," she said. They kept on walking, when near the mountain side, they were attacked by bandits. The bandits launched a barrage of throwing stars, but Vannesa created a barrier.

"Ability holder! Retreat!" One of the bandits shouted.

Luke made a fireball, but Vannesa made a motion. "Let them go. It doesn’t really matter."

"Why? They attacked us," Luke questioned.

"Why would we even go after them? We are on a time limit." Vannesa said. Luke nodded understanding.

They camped the night so they were ready in the morning. When they woke up they had breakfast then it was time to climb the cliffside.

There was a small, inconsistent trail. They had to do a lot of scaling by hand. Vannesa made platforms for them to climb up on, but she had limited elemental energy, so they had to take a break on a ledge for her to generate more. Luke looked out over the expanse of frozen grass glinting in the sunlight. "I’ve never been this high up before," Luke said to Vannesa. "The highest I’ve ever been was on top of my town’s heat tower."

"Really?" Vannesa asked.

Luke nodded. "Really. Back in my town we barely had any food or money. We were close to losing all our money to the taxes." Luke clenched his fist. "And now they’re gone from that fire. That STUPID fire. The emperor ruined life for my family. Now let’s ruin his."

Vannesa stood up. "I think I have enough psy energy to keep going."

"Lets go," Luke said with a steely determination.