"This is it." the teen patted on the flesh pedals that trapped Adea Haki. She turned to the old man, "Aumon, we can finally continue our great quest! These three years had been tough!"

She suddenly knelt on the ground, lightly giggling at herself. Her hands quivered. Aumon could tell she was abusing Saliscreace's power again to mess with her brain. Having been with her for years, Aumon had gotten used to her doing this. The girl would be dead if she reached her current condition through drugs. However, Saliscreace's power had no side effect, so Aumon never really tried to stop her.

"Olinia, you just can't wait," Aumon Complained as he simulated a "slight amount" of addictive stimulant into his brain. Shaking his head, he stumbled to the empty coupe. He saw nothing but a duffle on the back row. He scratched his hairy head and asked, "Wasn't there another person in the car?" The only response he got was Olinia's giggling.

Aumon did not really care about that. He was just glad they could finally start spreading eternal love and happiness again. Aumon was willing to let whoever hid in the coupe go. He knew Olinia would not like that, yet, in his opinion, IAO had been doing a good job suppressing those evil pagans. To Aumon, IAO's only problem was they went after his religion. Besides, he knew what IAO's building exploding meant: a big problem. Thus, it was fully reasonable to let one agent go and save the day.

Then, he heard the teen suddenly drop to the ground. Her giggling ended. "Olinia?" Aumon called and swayed his way to the girl on the ground. He lightly shook her on the shoulder repeatedly and said, "You are taking too much again. Your brain can't take that much. You'll faint." His eyes looked as sluggish as always. It was not his first time complaining about Olinia fainting herself.

Meanwhile, In the black coupe, Haston Tale was lying in the gap between the back and front seats while grasping a magical wood baton before his chest. Using the power of the baton, Haston had turned himself invisible. The downside was that he needed to stay still. Drops of sweat gilded off Haston's forehead as Aumon's voice kept coming in from the two ajar front doors. It was true that his duffle was filled with magical items now. However, Haston had no confidence to fight the two casters. They moved and reacted much faster than him now. He could fight them before when they did not have those weird meat pedals. After witnessing the defeat of both his companions, Haston rather waited for them to go away.

Convincing himself that he would not be caught, Haston started to distract himself from what he had to do after this. He wished he could get to the dragon's heart before Winceim Barbey, but he doubted. He would probably tell the military what was happening and take their aid. According to Staker's plan, they would reach the dragon's heart much faster than Barbey. Yet, he was no more sure after encountering Xaire and the Saliscreacists. Interrupting his thoughts, the sound of ignition caught his attention. The flame had devoured the flesh cage.

Aumon glanced back at the burning pedals and touched Olinia's forehead. He promptly cleaned out all the simulated toxins in her head and awakened her. Being forced into consciousness, the girl opened her eyes.

"Staker's getting out of the cage!" Aumon shouted over his shoulder as he targeted himself and cast the same spell he used on Olinia. His obtuse and numb visage turned into a sharp and shrewd expression.

Three bolts of orange light rushed out of the meat pedals, flying at the old man. Aumon effortlessly dodged out of the way. In his current state of hyper-attention-and-agility, Aumon could even react to the fastest crossbow in the world. Those pathetic bolts from Staker had no chance of getting close to him. He stood a short distance beside the teen, who also stood up.

They both made the gesture and cast Entry of Paradise again. Pink spheres flew at the burning cage as the glowing spike of The Capering Wyrm went through the pedals. The pink sphere disappeared on the blazing surface of the flesh cage, and the two pagans easily dodged the charging spike. The spike could never hit them, but the yellow trace left by the spike still reduced their moving space. Under normal conditions, The Capering Wyrm should have already disappeared since Entry of Paradise could pull the affected's mind to another world, therefore stopping the spell.

As the spike turned around and came back at them, Olinia yelled in surprise, "What the fuck?"

Aumon deftly shifted his body out of the spike's way. He loudly commanded, "Turn off the pedals, Poe!" He had realized what was happening.

Flame fairy casters, like Staker, could use their spells to ignite objects and cause explosions. However, it was only a limited aspect of their power. These casters could also affect fire in other ways, like making it wave without wind or extinguishing it. It would not be a surprise if Staker could grant the flame magic resistance to some degree. Aumon had no proof, but he was confident in himself. After all, he was one of the best mathematicians in Darape, and the power of Saliscreace had enhanced his brain to twice his original level.

The spike then charged at Olinia, forcing her to jump up her minivan. Tightly following behind, the spike went for the head. The teen crouched down and immediately rolled off the car roof to the other side of the vehicle to dodge the next blow.

Meanwhile, Aumon had grasped his hands, folding them together.

Brain-Break Blast.

A glowing, pink arrow, almost as big as the old man's folded hands, flitted out of his crossed fingers. The collapsed pedals had faded into the air, revealing the defenseless caster.

As the girl rolled off the minivan, the spike charged into it. Olinia firmly landed with both her soles touching the ground simultaneously. She expected the spike to chase her out of the minivan. Yet, it was not what happened. The spike dashed out of the vehicle, going for the old man.

The Capering Wyrm went through Aumon's forearms, and Aumon's arrow hit Staker in the chest. The old man's arms exploded, scorched flesh and bones burst on his body and face. The folded hands were blown away.

The pink arrow popped like a bubble, and Staker fell to the ground. The Capering Wyrm was gone, and Staker could hardly maintain consciousness. He spent his last bit of strength shifting his head. Then, his movement stopped, and he closed his eyes.

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Flipping through the entire minivan, Olinia scurried to the disabled man on the ground. His slim chest expanded and shrunk with the fast panting. The remaining of his arms lay loosely on the asphalt ground. Blood had him surrounded. Death was approaching. Parts of his hair and beard were burned black and soaked red. His eyes were only opened to see Olinia and Poe for one last time. Olinia knelt next to him. Her palms were put on his cheeks, which were covered in blood and flesh. The fragment that pierced into Aumon's face also cut her hands. They looked at each other for one last time.

How could a young drug addict and an aged mathematician ever see each other this way? If it were not for the miracle of Saliscreace, they would only be strangers on the streets. The same faith in eternal happiness had brought them together. The same belief had them cherishing each other. It was a relationship above the materialistic lust or want. Now, it ended, but only in the physical world. In the paradise of Saliscreace, the old man was there, waiting for the teen to join him.

Young Poe, wearing a black hoodie and sports pants, exited the minivan's driver's seat. He ran toward the two with his hands folded to keep the meat cage existing. He stopped behind Olinia, peering from the side of the girl.

Poe was the kid of two followers who both died young. He grew up with Aumon's guidance and Olinia's parenting. Without any of the two, Poe would not have reached his potential as a spell caster and invented the meat pedals. He did feel grateful, yet their love was much beyond the gratefulness. The three were not tied by blood or oath but by love.

As the girl's tears dropped on his face, Aumon spoke his last words, "No need to cry for me. I'm just going to Saliscreace." Olinia shook her head heavily while Poe lightly did the same. However, Olinia's only response to Aumon's tranquility was a face of tough sadness. She bit her teeth, trying to control her expression, and failed.

Shooting through the vibe, Haston made a shot with his compound crossbow. The sneak attack would've worked if these pagans were still as weak as he first met them. Now, the bolt could only cut through Olinia's grey hair while she was dodging. Watching the bolt fly past before her face, Olinia had turned all her sorrow and grief into an enormous mess of wrath. She stood up, facing the coupe. The inner sides of her caplet and cloak started to emit a purplish-pink shimmer. A breeze appeared within, softly waving her clothes upward in the air. The same shimmer and breeze appeared in her eyes; her greyish-white hair flapped in this gentle wind. Olinia had entered the Salis-Link form, in which her connection with Saliscreace optimized to the maximum.

Haston stooped behind the car door after seeing this change in the girl. Then, a flash of pink lightning formed before Olinia's mouth. It instantly hit the door that Haston was hiding behind, making a dent in the door and knocking it off. The whole coupe was pushed backward, away from the meat cage, and rotated; the front of the car faced the teen. Haston was blown to the other side of the vehicle within the coupe. The back of his head was smashed on the window while the duffle was blown into his arms. The following shaft of lightning shattered both the front and rear windscreens.

Haston quickly pulled a square piece of paper from the duffle. On the paper, there was a blue silhouette of a flower. He knew the meaning of the silhouette. He knew the power hidden behind it: the immuno-wind that could stop any use of magic. It was their only chance to escape from Winceim Barbey if they encountered him. With that not in mind, Haston expended the immuno-wind.

Haston concentrated on the flower. As Olinia sprinted to the coupe, Haston released the spell in the paper. However, Haston was not a Flower Reader. He could only make the immuno-wind affect himself and another person at once.

The silhouette disappeared. Then, a gust of immuno-wind blasted on Olinia's face. For a moment, she thought it was over. Yet, before the start of the next second, she recognized that the immuno-wind did not take her power away. At that moment, she realized that Poe was the target and heard a scream.

Olinia turned toward the direction of the scream. A falchion had already been hurled into Poe's chest, and the flesh pedals that jailed Adea Haki were gone. Before Olinia could form another string of pink lightning, Haki landed a full punch on her face.

Blood spurted out of Olinia's nostrils. She formed another spark of lightning while tottering backward. To her surprise, Haki grasped the pink spark. As Olinia launched the lightning and obliterated the fighter's right forearm, another fist landed on her face. This time, Haki knocked her to the ground and gave her a minor nasal fracture.

The gleam on the teen was gone with her consciousness. Both women were covered in fresh blood and burst flesh. One of the bone fragments made a deep cut on Haki's left cheek. As her right forearm grew back in white light, every trace of the previous forearm disappeared. The body rubbles on the two were gone, but that cut on the cheek remained. There would be a scar.

Clenching her hands into fists, Haki dropped her knees to Olinia's sides. Her breath was heavy, and she was ready to kill. Haston ran out of the coupe, calling Haki not to tear the girl apart.

"We still need her to bring Staker back." Haston held the fighter's raised fist by the wrist. Haki closed her eyes as she continued panting. When Haki opened her eyes again, she had already stood up and pushed back the urge of brutality in her. The woman was a split person. A part of her instinctively chose violence, and another part naturally desired peace and happiness. Adea Haki only wanted the latter, but she occasionally got reminded of the former.

While Adea was leaning against the coupe with her eyes closed, Haston tied Olinia's wrists together and her hands back-to-back. He dragged her next to the fainted Staker and slapped her in the face several times. As a tiny whimpering came out of the girl's mouth, Adea opened her eyes and walked toward them. Haston heavily shook Olinia's head sideways until she gradually opened her eyes.

"Now, bring my friend back from your fucking sky daddy!" Adea mildly scolded Olinia, balancing on the edge of overawing and releasing her anger.

"I won't help who refuse the love of Saliscreace," she weakly argued, "Besides, he's not with my lord. Saliscreace won't accept refusers."

In an attempt to hold herself from her wrath, Adea turned away, rubbing her face with both hands. Haston glanced at Adea and looked back at Olinia. After a sigh, he began, "Although none of us believe being a subject to an alien is true immor—"

Enduring the pain in her nose, Olinia yelled, "What's wrong with wanting happiness? What's wrong with not wanting to die? When you cease to exit after death, I'll be immortal, living happily with my Aumon and my Poe forever. What is so wrong in spreading happiness that we must be persecuted?" Her voice quivered, and her sentence eventually became a series of groaning and whimpering.

Haston held Olinia by the shoulders and said with an assertion in his tone, "If you don't bring Staker back, no one will ever be able to enter any sort of paradise. A fanatic, crazier than you, thinks freezing the entire world is immortality. We need Staker to stop him. And IAO will owe you once if you help us."

Hearing Haston's words, Olinia stopped crying. She asked, "Promise me that the Darape branch will lift all the restrictions on us."

"..." Haston hesitated. Adea, while walking to her falchion, suddenly explained, "Not counting Staker, you are the last member of the Darape branch. According to Article Five of The Principle, you can currently represent the entire Darape branch." She had already sealed both her escapist dream and rampaging rage.

Haston closed his eyes and raised his head. After a dozen seconds of silence, he spoke again.

"Fine," Haston Tale looked back at Olinia and agreed with one condition, "But you have to come with us and help us fight Winceim Barbey if we ever have a face-off."

"Deal," the teen finished the negotiation immediately, leaving no chance for mind-changing.