After ranging quite a distance, they reached an unfamiliar section of the cave, where a deep pool lay, and a luminous insect swarm once again flaunted their light on the stone aisle.

Izel set Tome down and leaned Kaito gently against the rock wall. "Okay, little ones. You should be safe here."

"B-but how do we get out of here?" asked Tome, her face still marked by fear and tears.

Izel's expression was the most resilient among them. "Fear not, Little Tome! These stones are no match to the might of my fire! We'll burst through the ceiling all the way to the surface if necessary." She patted the little girl's arm, only to be met with a shrill moan as her touch struck like a slab of rock. Izel withdrew her hand awkwardly.

The pyromancer immediately turned her attention back to Kaito, especially to his stumped hand. The boy's complexion was ashen and sweaty, and Izel saw the blood still seeping through the bandages and the tracks left in the cave tunnels.

"C-cold....," Kaito croaked. "My head... spinning...."

"Don't speak more words, Kaito. Just keep breathing." Izel lit her candle and set it afloat in the air, pervading the entire cave with its sweet fragrance. Afterwards, she reopened the somewhat useless bandage, as it was already blood-soaked. When Izel's wand began to emit its soft light, Tome shook her head, hands gripping the wizard's burly arm.

"No, don't burn my brother!" Tome cried out.

"No, Tome! Tome!" Izel brushed off the little girl's grip. "I don't have powers as beautiful as Arcane, but my flames will not harm your brother. My flames will save him." Her eyes met with Kaito's half-shut eyes. "Do you trust me, Kaito?"

"Will it... Will it hurt...?"

"To live is to endure pain. Yes, a little, but you're a big boy, so surely you can bear this!"

Kaito offered a slight but quick nod. "I-I'm ready."

"Xu-tlāxīlot! Xu-te-yōllō! Xu-macah!"

Bizzare pink flames from the staff’s serpent’s muzzle spewed onto Kaito’s amputated wound. The boy braced himself for the expected pain and squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation. However, Izel was true to her word: the agony from the severed hand was absent, replaced by a sensation akin to being bitten by ants. He felt a bubbly, sticky sensation on his wound, and heard a hissing on its surface. Regardless, being bitten by an ant was still a scourge for any child, so Kaito kept his face puckered as the healing progressed.

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" teased Izel.

A shake from Kaito's head, but the cringe remained.

As the blood on Kaito's wound evaporated, and new skin covered the exposed flesh and bone, the fiery display gradually subsided and disappeared. Though the skin on the amputated area was not entirely smooth, for the most part, Izel's magic healing had achieved its purpose.

"Just one more step," Izel said as she laid her hand on the boy's forehead. Upon drawing breath, she exclaimed, "Xu-te-mētl! Xu-tlaquēchol! Xu-te-atoyān!" and a speck of flame appeared at the centre of her palm before erupting and enveloping Kaito in tongues of fire.

"Neesan!" Tome again lost her composure. How could she, when her brother's form was already lost in flames? "Don't burn my brother! Neesan!"

The pyromancer's patience ebbed, and she snapped at the little girl, "Silence, Tome! I’ve already told you, my fire won't burn anyone! Why won’t anyone believe me? Do you think I'm fond of burning people? Look!"

The tongues of flame receded, and Kaito's face appeared again, still intact, and even better—the pallor on his skin was gone. The flames had transformed into a reddish aura enveloping his body, moving slowly like smoke and translucent tongues.

"Oni-chan!" Tome suddenly lunged at his brother's body. Kaito winced slightly, but his face broke into a warm smile.

"Daijoubu desu. Watashi wa daijoubu desu. Izel-neesan no hi wa watashi o iyashimasu. " Kaito replied in Kagatsean.

"That fire aura should linger on your body for a while," Izel explained. "It will warm you and stimulate your bone marrow to produce more blood faster, compensating for what was lost due to bleeding. Under the protection of myself and my fire, you will live."

The younger sister peered at her brother's stumped right hand and pointed at it. "Demo, onichan no te wa...? " she asked, addressing the altered state of Kaito’s right hand. She then nestled herself into her brother’s body again, crying.

Kaito beheld his hand, offering nought but a wry smile. His tears were contained, unwilling to burst forth as to deepen Tome’s sorrow further, even though losing his hand meant he would never be the same as in days of yore. Performing simple work would be more menial. The chance of a good life diminished. Kaito envisioned a long life to share that fate of helplessness, being different to others. His head now ached as a consequence and his chest tight with overwhelm.

"Hey..." Two of Izel's hands held each of Kaito and Tome's shoulders. "Don't dwell on it too much. You're still fully human, Kaito. It's not the loss of a hand that defines you, but your perseverance when facing it.”

Both Kaito and Tome stared at Izel's stoic visage. "Look," the performance continued, "my magic teacher lost his arm to the vicious hand-tail of a water dog back in Tamoanchan. Yet he's still one of the most formidable practitioners I've ever known. So much so, in fact, that I swear he's even stronger now. He once taught me what made him so: 'From the fire of adversity, a lost limb can still rise to glory, but a lost life is a fire extinguished forever.' Do you know what that means?"

"N-no...," Tome shook her head, representing her brother's feelings.

"Stop fretting, Tome. Especially you, Kaito. You're fortunate to be alive, and that means you still have a chance to achieve greatness. Yield not!"

Kaito, while still running his fingers through his sister's hair, appeared deeply moved by her words. "Izel neesan... I'm..."

Before he could finish, the cave once again shook violently. The sharp formations on the ceiling plummeted to the ground and the pool, indifferent to whatever they hit, including the trio.

"Oh, no! W-what are we going to do?" Kaito panicked. Tome dared not look at anything at all.

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"What are we going to do?" Izel grinned confidently. "We will go out!" She gripped Kaito's shoulder with one hand, and raised her staff with the other, as she chanted, "Xu-tlaquīzma! Xu-te-ōllin! Xu-tlāzot!"

A blazing visage resembling a tiger's head burst out of the rock’s surface and engulfed the three of them, carrying them to the top of the cave! Kaito and Tome hugged each other in fear, as this was technically their first air trip, and the trip came with severe turbulence. The siblings grimaced in horror as the fiery head of sorts seemed fragile, even though crushing rocks did not appear to be the greatest concern. What if at any time it went out after being relentlessly pounded by pebbles and boulders? But Izel was rather used to this, and her infectious smug grin did not fade, patiently waiting for the familiar sight of the surface to greet her. The rocky journey continued until, at last, the daylight blinded them, and the giant flame head persisted to almost overtop the trees.

"We live!" echoed Izel, as she steered the fire-head in for a landing. "See, little ones? We're safe!"

Once they reached a plain some distance away from the cave’s mouth, Kaito and Tome immediately took shelter in the shade of the pine trees.

Izel walked to the area exposed to the sun, then knelt with her two hands pointed upwards, united into a circle. A sign that always reminded her not to forget her god. "My pyromancy saved the children today, but it was only because you bestowed this ability upon my crown. May with this you see me as something more. See me worthy, see me worthy, see me worthy, o Citlalticoatl, my god."

A short thanksgiving concluded, and Izel ran back to Kaito and Tome. "So? Are you both unharmed? Any collateral injuries?"

"N-no. Me and Tome are fine," Kaito replied. Tome concurred with a nod. "We are thankful for your help, Izel-neesan."

Izel responded with a casual wave of her hand. "Ah, no problem. It was the least I could do." A loose laugh to banish embarrassment. She turned her face away, scrunching her waist.

But while she laughed, Kaito brought back his childish curiosity, which was innocent still, clad in conscience. "But..., what about Wisesa-nichan and Alicia-neesan?"

Izel then remembered the images of those two teens, and how in her mind she was denied a battle in favour of saving the kids in her presence right now. Saving the children was certainly satisfactory, but her face grew somewhat sullen. "They should be fine. They possess great magic might. We just need to wait."

"Can Izel-neesan confirm their condition?"

"I won’t leave you behind, especially in your current state."

"Maybe Izel-neesan could create a protective spell?" Kaito still dithered.

"Don't be silly." the pyromancer's face tightened. "I'm not taking any chances even if you are stationed alone in the fort. Mujino is still lurking around here."

Her gentle but firm scolding dampened Kaito's curiosity. He chose to stare at the withered leaves. "Izel-neesan is right. Sorry."

Izel moved closer to the two children, crouching down to level their gazes. "The tremours in the cave earlier, that must have been their doing. Wisesa is the man who can command rocks and earth. Maybe he did that, or Alicia-neesan was boasting her Arcane before the slime monster." A bitter laugh escaped from her throat. "How could slime be capable of all that?"

Kaito simply nodded.

"We’ll wait here for an hour. If an hour passes and they haven't returned by then, I'll consider doing them a favour." After responding to her own words, Izel took two aluminium-wrapped bars from her bag. The slight tangy scent of vanilla and cinnamon teased their senses, fantasising a sweet flavour lingering on their tongues. "Look. I have Amaranth Bars. One for me...," Izel brought one amaranth bar closer to her chest, "...and you can split the other one, while we wait for them!" Another bar was given to Tome, without any guilt at all.

But again, the ground suddenly trembled, smoke rose from the trees, and various kinds of human cries echoed through the air. The closest one was heard near the puff. The farthest one was definitely not a real human voice, to Izel's judgment. Kaito and Tome shared the same thought.

The pyromancer turned around, sighing. "Maybe we won't need to wait after all."

Tome's hand nearly reached the sweet bar before Izel stowed it back into the bag. Without any guilt at all.

"Can you walk?" Izel inquired of Kaito.

With the Orange Witch's helping hand, Kaito exerted his strength to stand. It seemed that his body was still quivering. "I'm not sure. But I'll try."

"No need." Izel cast magic to summon a chariot made of tongues of flame—a performance that Kaito and Tome had rejected outright the previous evening. Truly an opportune timing. Now their options were clear: they could either muster the courage to limp through the forest while the fake human’s howls inched closer or muster the courage to ride that. Izel guided them between the two options. "We're taking this cool ride. Come on, hop in!"

The sibling’s buttocks began to descend the horned serpent’s cushions and once again, Izel's promise was kept. When they sat on the flaming seat, it felt like... sitting on a chair. The cushions were quite soft, and there was a tinge of warmth considering it was fire, but it was far from torture. It even had a footrest!

It held but one flaw: there were no seat belts. Even the most dilapidated engine carriage would be illegal if it lacked a seatbelt. This, if Izel's proud magic carriage was not to be compared to a horse-drawn one, or a wheelbarrow. The one thing that Kaito and Izel were still unsure of. And as a woman of great courage and a defier of fate, Izel was hardly the sort to ride in the manner of a king’s coachman.

Izel, their fiery charioteer, stood at the front and inserted her staff into the centre of the serpent's lip line. The chariot’s mouth was now linked. "Hold on tight, little ones!"

Kaito replied as quickly as he could, "Hold on to what?"

With her staff a steering wheel, Izel pushed it forward, and before they knew it, the flaming serpent chariot was zigzagging through the forest at breakneck speed! Kaito's eyes were already wide, his left hand clutching the chair’s flame tongues in the hope of not sliding forward, but his own body felt like it might slip out of the seat at any time. Tome, as usual, was holding onto his brother. Together, they screamed. Izel also screamed, in a contrasting context.

The serpent chariot whizzed past the rock ledge, then manoeuvred throughout the last clusters of trees before arriving at a massive pit where the smoke was coming from. With a sharp turn, the chariot almost tipped over near the two panting individuals on the verge of collapse.

"I told you it was them!" The mouth of the horned snake opened, and Izel leapt off. "Alicia, you look like a mess! So is this, Wisesa, what you meant by 'not herself when fighting'?"

"More aggressive than before, but that's how—"

"Kids!" Alicia cut in with a loud voice. "Where are the kids? Ye dinnae leave them, did ye!"

"Leave them? Of course not!" denied Izel, but the bespectacled lass' concern awakened her conscience a little, causing her to step back and glance around. "Wait, let me make sure first. I just realised that I might have driven too fast—oh they're still there! Thank you, Citlalicoatl!"

"Kaito! Tome!" Alicia forgot all about her pain and fatigue, crawling then darting towards the carriage.

"Alicia-neesan!" Kaito and Tome's greetings came out instantly. Their footsteps wobbled from the tumultuous chariot ride. It was likely that Izel had failed to win them over to become regular passengers of the horned snake carriage.

Wisesa was the only one who noticed Izel's subtle, mouth-smacking sound.

"Are you all right?" Alicia enfolded the children for a moment, before taking another look at the boy's stumped arm, and her face was pained once more. She bit her lips and clenched her fists as well.

"Alicia-neesan. It's okay. Izel-neesan convinced me to accept my current situation. This... is my fault too."

Alicia's eyebrows drew sharper. "It cannae be that way—"

The human-like howls were heard again, and this time, they were much closer as the wind also carried the hoofbeats.

"That dog monster again! I really hate that thing!" Barong materialised, along with its tirade.

The host, Wisesa, was the most pessimistic of all. "I hate everything."

Izel, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of the lad. "Then it's time for round two!" she declared, then assumed the frontline. "Wisesa, let's see who can defeat the most enemies! Alicia, now that you have the children, I suggest you retreat and protect them."

Suddenly she let out a war cry. A response to the human-like howl emanating from the forest’s depths. "Yes.Yes! Come closer, unclean binxtrunachs!" The gesture of the sun worship was done again. Her breath was euphoric heavy. Her glee was that of the battle-frenzied. "You are the whetstones for my obsidians! The pyre for my kingly fire! I shall lavish in your soon-spilled battle-sweat! O, how Citlalicoatl sun will laugh and rejoice, for he, too, shall bask in my glory of hewing you all! Let you be my vessel to prove my worthiness in the eyes of Citlalicoatl, my god!" []