The gale of the sea blew with constant noise. Such wind could not put down a man but enough to lift any plastic bags and roll aluminum cans on the ground. It was probably why the road next to the coast was so clean. The road was between a sparse forest and a narrow beach. The forest was much denser and lusher away from the beach. The beach was undeveloped and separated from the road with a sea wall that lowered the beach at least a meter. Breaking waves rarely smashed on the sea wall, spilling water on the road. Under the noon light, Olinia's minivan stood alone on the road.

"Here we are," Olinia said as she leaned against the seat. She looked emptily at the coast and asked, "There is literally nothing here. Where is that so-called dragon's heart?"

"The Dragon's heart is secretly hidden in another world. This is just the location that allows me to summon the dragon's heart into our world," Staker explained, "Also, the military told me that Winceim Barbey had destroyed the headquarters of Wictin Conglomerate and murdered a bunch of civilians and police force. He was currently on the Jinin Clan's land. The army already had the place surrounded. It would take at least three hours for Barbey to arrive."

"So we got here on time," Haston commented and sighed in relief. Seeing their plan successfully go to the last step, Haston felt he could see victory right before him.

"But we haven't met Barbey's army. We only fought Xaire. Where's the rest of them?" Adea Haki asked as her eyes locked on the lighthouse a few hundred meters away. The lighthouse was a ten-meter-high white tower with red spirals painted on its cone wall. Haki squinted her eyes, staring at the lighthouse.

"Maybe they are still in Utlia." Haston picked up the Book of Furnace and opened the door, "Let's not waste any more time. I can not wait for my promotion." As Haston exited the vehicle, the sniper was shot.

A palm-sized turtle shell popped out between Haston's head and the bullet. The sniper bullet crushed the carapace almost immediately. Yet, it got diverted off its original trajectory when coming out of the plastron. It slid past the shoulder of Haston's blouson.

Before Haston could process the event that just happened, he was dragged back into the minivan by Haki. He watched the turtle shell pop into a clot of dark smoke and bumped into Haki's arms.

Pushing Haston off her chest, Haki shouted, "Lighthouse! They are in the lighthouse!" As Olinia lay on the seat next to hers, a bullet shattered the windscreen. All three of the agents hid behind the seat before them.

"Fuck!" Olinia screamed after glass pieces fell on her.

"You have a sniper?" Haki asked with a hand propped against the seat.

"If I have one, I would first use them on you. So, no!"

"Haston, anything you can do about it?"

"The book can auto-summon shields to block those bullets." He glimpsed at the broken fabric on his shoulder, "Sort of." He tugged his duffle open and flipped through it.

A bullet went through the seat before Haki and pierced her hand. As it grew back, Staker said he didn't have any spell that could reach such a long range.

Taking it out from the duffle, Haston tossed a scroll of bird paintings outside the car.

Snippets of Drawn Birds.

Each piece of drawing transformed into a fox-sized, oil-painted eagle, flying toward the lighthouse. One of them was shot down immediately. The remaining three kept soaring.

Haston quickly jumped out of the vehicle with a red jade ball in his hand as the eagles led the sniper's attention away. He immediately threw it above the top of the minivan. It was the same type of magical item as Barbey's jade marble, which only worked when thrown above an object. The only difference was that Haston's version was mobile. As a red hemisphere surrounded the minivan, Haston leaped back in.

"Drive! The shield cannot hold many shots!" Haston yelled at Olinia.

"Copy," the girl, wildly grinning, sat up straight and trampled the gas pedal.

"How do you know we are on the right track?" Haki asked as she grasped her falchion.

"I can see through those birds' eyes," Haston answered with white lights glazed from his eyes. His heartbeat rose as he felt the blowing gale through the bird's skin and saw its distance to the ground. Haston never had acrophobia, but this fear of the sky was rooted in every human's nature.

A bullet fell on the red hemisphere, and another followed. Narrow and web-like cracks spread from the points hit. The minivan was zooming, yet it was not visible in the car. Staker stared at Haston, waiting for him to say something. Haki's eyes swung between Olinia and Haston. Olinia's grin widened as drops of sweat glided off her forehead.

Suddenly, Haston shouted, "Right! Turn right!"

Olinia uncontrollably burst out laughing and answered in a scream, "Aye!" She vigorously swung the steering wheel. The tires made a sharp squeal as they scratched against the asphalt road.

The hemisphere broke into pieces and faded away as it smashed through the metal front door of the lighthouse.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The rear half of the minivan was stuck on the porch steps while the front half was hanging in the air. Haston's eyes stopped glowing as he turned off his connection with the drawn bird. The first floor of the lighthouse had an old elevator and a spiraling staircase next to it, leading upward. Other than the rubbles on the ground and the fire extinguisher in the corner, there was nothing else on the first floor.

Olinia flipped through the empty windscreen frame and stood on her car bonnet. She frenetically shouted as a mouthful of saliva dripped off her lips, "The servant of Barbey! Get out of here!" The inner parts of her clothes emitted pink lights as her saliva fell on her grey capelet. Who knew what she had simulated in her brain this time?

"Be careful—" A translucent, grey tentacle charged out the elevator door before Haki finished her sentence. Olinia shifted her body sideways and watched the tentacle go past her. She saw its tip smashed into the minivan's car frame, leaving a glowing blue crack behind as it dissolved in the air.

As she turned her head back to the elevator, the next wave of attack had already begun. A total of twenty tentacles popped out. Half of them went for the vehicle. The rest rushed at Olinia and her surroundings. Although these tentacles were as fast as arrows, they were still too slow to catch a Saliscreacist in Salis-Link form.

Olinia deftly flipped onto her car's roof, dodging every single shot. As a clump of pink lightning formed before her nose, Olinia saw someone darting toward her from the staircase. She immediately redirected her lightning at the incoming person.

In a flash of pink light, the two people crashed atop the minivan, and both flew out of the lighthouse. Olinia's back smashed on the soft sand of the wet beach. The force of the fall moved her nose off its position. The person who charged at Olinia tumbled off her body and rolled six laps away.

As the two stood up, Olinia could finally see the person's appearance. He was a white man with his fringe-up haircut mixed with sand. His kanzu and strappy sandals were equally dirty as his hair. As he rubbed his eyes clean, the bat-shaped cutout on the kanzu's chest started burning. The purplish-blue blaze flamed perfectly in the bat-shaped hole, not spreading or affecting the fabric beside it. Although Olinia did not recognize this spell, she guessed it included some weird body enhancement thing similar to her Salis-Link. Anyway, she knew her lightning would not work when the spell was on.

Not bothered by all the grains in her grey hair, Olinia reentered her Salis-Link form with a serious face. She slightly shifted her broken nose back to its place and held her fists before her.

"Are you a fighter or a spell caster?" the white man asked after opening his eyes. His voice contained an Utlian accent heavier than Haki's.

"I'm not an agent, so I guess I can not be categorized as a fighter," the girl answered, although confused.

"You are the fastest caster I've ever seen," the white man praised with a smirk.

"You are trying to waste time. Drop it."

"And the cleverest." The man darted forward as a track of purplish-blue haze was left behind. Hardly reacting to this speed, Olinia experienced an instant fear as she dodged sideways.

The man promptly stopped about three meters away from his target after missing. Olinia immediately cleared the fright out of her mind and put her left hand above her right hand with some distance between the facing palms.

"Why do all you Utlians just love to dash at your enemies?"

"It is effective. You have to admit," the man responded before again darting with a speed way faster than arrows.

The frenetic grin reappeared on the girl's visage as the white man sprinted into her trap.

Entry of Paradise!

The bat-shaped flame disappeared, and the white man unconsciously smashed into Olinia's arms. The two fell to the ground with the Utlian man on top. A spark of lightning formed before Olinia's face. Fluckily, as the Saliscreacist launched the lightning, the cutout on the kanzu began burning again.

The only consequence of that string of lightning was a punch in return. The man struck his fist on Olinia's face, cracking her broken nose. He then grasped the girl's neck and changed his posture from crawling to kneeling.

Having no air coming into her lungs, Olinia grabbed the man's arms, slapped it, pummeled it, and even knocked it with elbows. Her mouth was wide open, and her eyes were shut. Even her feet were kicking the air and stamping on the sand. The fear was no more a fright. The fear had actually become unneglectable. Not even Saliscreace's power could remove it.

It felt different from the time she got defeated by Haki and Haston. There was only frustration and desperation in her mind back then. She was too provoked by her family's deaths that her own danger became merely an issue. Yet, this time, she had nothing to feel but her own life. The man before her was not IAO. He did not have a standard nor any interest in mercy. She knew, felt, and thought, "he will kill me."

"Good plan, kid," the man said while choking Olinia, "You almost got me with that one. You are a good caster. Let me tell you my name before I kill you, at least." He clutched the girl's neck firmer and firmer.

The pain in her neck rose unimportantly since the lack of air had already wiped out Olinia's sanity. Her grip on the man's arms loosened. The gleam inside her clothes was gone. The struggling in the legs slowed. Her mind was foggy. She could not feel her thoughts processing. The only remaining in her head was her instinct, which was also dimming.

Suddenly, a miracle struck in her head. Her eyes wildly opened, and her brain hastened like never before. This extreme sobriety brought her a spell to survival.

"My name's—" the man paused his sentence, seeing Olinia's sudden movement in her eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked. The response he got was Olinia's hands folding together, fingers crossing.

Meat pedals suddenly appeared beneath them, caging both of them up as they closed into a flesh bud.

"Huh?"

Tentacles swiftly grew from the pedals and fastened on the man's wrists. The solid grip on Olinia's throat was easily broken as the tentacles held the man's hands in the air. Before he could utter a sound, a tentacle rushed into his mouth like a cork plug. More tentacles had wrapped around his waist, legs, neck, and eyes. The Utlian man was lifted in the air. The tentacle around his neck tightened. Olinia had returned the previous choking.

As the man struggled in futility, the purplish-blue flame before his chest darkened. Eventually, he stopped moving, and the flame disappeared. Olinia let go of her hands, deactivating the spell. The man's corpse fell on her.

Olinia flipped the corpse aside, standing up. She stared at the cloudless sky. The meat pedals were Poe's spell. They were never hers, yet she used them. She just suddenly learned them and became sober. But how? Was Poe's soul in Saliscreace's paradise helping her? Did Saliscreace himself save her?

Olinia caressed the bruises on her neck, feeling that miracle and recalling its warmth in the coldest desperation. The gale of the sea had her three grey hems swaying cheerfully for one last time.