I felt my body acting faster than my mind could even keep up with, like a surge of energy guiding my muscles with such speed that I couldn’t even register it.

My left hand raised up with mana charging in a quick and dirty way, pulsing out in a horrible burst that was incapable of doing anything.

Other than moving me.

I was thrown to the side violently as the mana exiting my body with explosive force sent me rolling along the ground just in time for the spear that was launched at me to impact with the debris-covered wall, shattering through more bed frames and plunging itself deep into the pile.

I had to take in a series of gaping breaths to try and steady myself while the air in the room grew heavier still. I could feel an intensifying breeze pressing against my body as I scrambled to get my feet under my torso. My shoulder was already aching from the force at which I had shoved myself to the side.

I finally got a foot under myself, launching myself up and towards a wall to steady myself. The entire room was covered in fragments of wood, dust filtering through the air, and yet the overwhelming pressure that circled around the room left me with a feeling of almost exactly where the woman was.

“I missed?” The woman spoke, sounding shocked for a moment before sighing. “I must really be off today then.” Her voice was distant, almost distraught in nature, like someone who had been told horrible news and was trying to hide their expression.

“Who are you?!” I exclaimed, demanding an answer as I caught myself against a wall. Taking the split second to breathe and refocus on the situation at hand. Yet the milliseconds dragged on like a millennia as silence was all that could greet my ears.

Yet it felt like my heart dropped even lower when I heard the woman speak with determination in her voice, I could feel mana fluctuating throughout the entire room like a pulsating heartbeat. It was like I was covered in water with pressure coming in from all around.

“I am Tyrosa, The Winds of Rebellion.” She spoke her name with such intent, such power behind her words that it felt unnerving to me. As if her self imposed title had truly meant something, and with the pressure that filled the room as she stated it I could only assume that it truly did.

Her right hand raised outwards, with wind whistling through the room her spear flew through the air back to her to land comfortably in her outstretched palm. The winds blew away the cloud of dust that had been circling her as she twisted and leveled her spear to face towards me.

“Kirin Vulender.” She spoke with confidence in her tone, and almost a level of pity. “The Forsaken daughter of a wronged country, just why are you here?” She spoke with confidence to her tone, while one leg shifted forwards, and her emerald eyes settled into a determined glare. Her hair sat flowing behind her, it easily could have reached to her hips but was practically levitating like a mane from the pressure in the air shifting around.

“I don’t know.” I spoke with my teeth grit, my heart was racing with adrenaline rushing. Every motion that Tyrosa made left me watching it, waiting, and trying to anticipate any kind of move to come from her. “I’m just trying to get back home with Tulip.”

“Home? You call a nation that executed your father for crimes they refuse to openly state a home? And more than that you wish to walk side by side with the heir to the very throne that held the blade?” Tyrosa spoke, her tone sounding more annoyed than anything.

“It’s the only place I’ve ever known. And how would I be any different, if I hated Tulip? If I hated everyone in Berinia?” I could feel my jaw clenching down, anger boiling over inside of me.

“You would be perfectly justified, perfectly justified to turn around and walk away. No one would ever know you are still alive, no one would ever care.” Tyrosa continued, her voice sneering the words out.

“Justified and right aren’t the same thing.” I spat out. “If I want to be better than them, then I need to accept that being ‘justified’ in my actions doesn’t mean that they’re right.” I could practically hear Darek’s voice in the back of my head, the countless ‘lessons’ he taught to me while being my personal guard in the mines.

“Just as naive as Brimrose, wishing for a fate that can never come to be. Simply from the greed in this world.” Tyrosa’s voice fell neutral once more as she leaned forwards, the pressure in the room softened for a few moments.

“I’d rather live naive with hope, than die cynical towards people that have been told nothing but a lie.” I took in a deep breath, mana pressing out of my body in a tight lattice to form my shield. Layers of it formed on top of each other, tightening in together to form something even mildly more durable than normal.

“Then die naive and happy.” Tyrosa spoke before it felt like a hurricane hit me.

The pressure in the room changed so rapidly that it felt impossible to keep my legs from giving in, almost like the utterly overwhelming force I felt when I had first met Levi in the interrogation room.

But, my legs didn’t give in. By spite, or by will, I forced my knees straight against as the onslaught of presence alone slammed against me. Wind whistled around me, echoing against my shield before battering against the wall immediately behind me.

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I could tell in an instant, how outclassed I was. I was nothing, just a pebble in the way of a hurricane ready to strike me down and throw me to the side where I belonged. But I pushed back with all my might.

I tried at first to just let all of my power out, like an unfiltered tidal wave, but I could feel the mana just scattering into the pressure leaving nothing behind other than the thin sparks of my Element that escaped with it, jumping through the air like it was trying to fight back.

With a defiant step forwards I could feel energy rushing across my body. Thin sparks of lightning jumped from my skin as I pressed back, not in an attempt to overwhelm Tyrosa, but simply to stand my ground against her.

For just a moment I felt the pressure lighten up, my eyes grew wide for a second as my mind jumped.

‘Did I beat her?’ My thoughts echoed out, but I felt a screaming instinct deep inside of me that it wasn’t that easy.

I saw the tip of her spear shifting forwards, the tiniest movement possible, so negligible that if I wasn’t watching her every motion I would have missed it. And it screamed to me a fact that I was terrified of.

Wind blasted out from behind her with such immense force that the wall behind her shattered into nothing but rubble, blowing against the far wall in the hallway in a brilliant cloud of black dust while the blade of her spear launched forwards with her arms extending.

I turned to the side, trying to avoid the strike, throwing myself away from the wall. But the immense speed of her strike was too much to avoid in its entirety as it punched clean through my shield, skimming just above my right shoulder while I fell to the ground.

I could see white cracks in the air where my shield was, with pieces falling down like glass. I pushed myself to my feet while throwing as much mana as I could possibly spare at my shield to try and recover any amount of durability and stop the cracks from spreading further.

“Hmm.” Tyrosa muttered as she slowly turned, taking a step forwards as she shifted her grip on her spear far lower on the pole, it came swinging down like an axe straight towards me. Again chipping a large chunk out of my shield, but just barely missing from the fraction of a second it took to break through the practically meaningless defense.

“I’m almost impressed that you can even move.” She spoke in a carefree tone, in a smooth motion she shifted her grip back towards the center of her weapon while flicking her hair back away from her face. “You can’t be more than a low ranked Sage at best… And yet you are managing to push against the pressure enough to move with ease.”

“I won’t… Just stand still… And die…” I gasped out between heaving breaths, the effort it took just to keep myself breathing felt like someone was pressing down on my chest with all of their might.

“Admirable. But stupid.” Tyrosa remarked as she started forwards slowly once more, walking at an angle to circle me slowly.

“Why are you even here? What’s the point? Why are you trying to kill me?” My questions shot out, with only a few moments to breathe it was at least enough to try and get answers out of the woman while my mind focused almost entirely on getting mana to fix the gaping holes in my shield.

I could tell from just a glance at it that my shield would only protect from another strike from the woman at absolute best.

“We’re here because of the two of you. And we’re being paid quite a large sum of coins for it as well. I’m not terribly sure what you could have done to antagonize someone with so much money to throw around for a frankly absurd plot to get a prisoner and princess killed though.” Tyrosa shrugged as she stopped, turning on the spot to face me.

I couldn’t even attempt to bring myself to talk, to even try and understand what any of it meant.

Someone was paying them off to kill me and Tulip? How- Why? What would the point of that even be? Was the entire plot to kidnap us from Arcadia a part of it or just an added convenience?

“Now if you would kindly be quiet now.” Tyrosa spat out. “I would like for this to be over, and to bury my friend.” Her glare settled down upon me with such utter hatred that it felt like I was frozen in place to the very bone.

Wind began swirling around her spear, a cyclone forming with a visible tornado-like effect with the blade at its epicenter. She raised it at an angle out to her side, preparing to twist it for a lunge forwards.

It felt like I was staring down death itself as it loomed over top of me, the pressure and howling of the wind so intense that I couldn’t stop shaking.

Was this it?

But determination still screamed in the back of my head.

I didn’t accept death for almost five years in that prison. I wasn’t going to just accept it now, not when I had a chance, had a means to fight back.

I could feel electricity arcing across my body still, the ‘aura’ I was using to even be able to move, to even try and fight back.

My shield shattered, the energy rushing back into my body while a hissing sound that turned to a brilliant surge of energy that flooded through my body. The speed let me roll slightly, just enough to get one of my legs at a better angle, while my right arm extended, my hand opened just in time for my sword to appear from within the ring sat upon my fingers.

It felt like I was moving faster than my body could even register, like every part of me was reacting in a way that shouldn’t happen, that shouldn’t work. But it somehow was.

And even with what felt like the laws of magic itself, the limits of my body, what felt like every boundary being pushed as far as possible. It wasn’t enough, I could see Tyrosa’s eyes following mine, her aim shifted, and while surprise betrayed her face when a blade appeared in my hand.

Her lunge started before I could even finish tightening my grip. So fast, so ferocious that I knew in a heartbeat that I’d feel it.

But it didn't come, my arm extended, and while my aim was off, barely landing a skimming blow against Tyrosa’s forehead, I kept my momentum, practically flying away from her and rolling along the ground with a painful series of impacts.

But I didn’t feel blood, I didn’t feel any more pain than I had just a few moments ago. I was utterly confused, but as my eyes moved around with my hand finding its grip once more on the hilt of my blade my eyes settled on the air in front of Tyrosa.

A golden shield looking like it was made of pure light sat, cracked, it had stopped her strike in place.

I could see the hatred in her eyes, made all the more threatening with blood slowly leaking from the scrape I had landed on her forehead beginning to outline her eyes.

“Kirin!”