Rime looked out the carriage window watching as they passed the fountain and then they begun to go pass stores and homes, a mix of both. Then they passed the Royal Academy and Rime smiled at the thought of going to visit the woman and one of the few places he was happy to call his home, though it hit him that he had never been in the garden. He shook his head, it was probably for good reason but he guessed his curiosity could take him over another time.

He felt the carriage come to a stop and he watched as Cyra set aside the book she and the Princes were reading and she started looking around, the eyes landed on him "an hour more before we reach the Temple, there should be no stops." Rime nodded and pulled his hood over his head and his mask over his face before getting out the carriage to see that a few carriages were passing in front of theirs.

He walked forward and could see the guards trying to get the man to just stop the carts but the person refused giving them some excuse, his body was relaxed until he saw a mage approaching him and he went stiff. The man's eyes looked to the side and Rime followed his sight to where a few more carriages were coming and he glared at the man. The man and the guards jumped when Rime made the carriage that was blocking their path shoot out of the way.

The thing flew into the air and landed in front of the carriages that were coming towards them the one barely coming to a stop before an accident happened. Rime looked at the guards and didn't have to say anything as they signaled for the Empress's carriages to start moving, he watched as they went on their way. Then went to the carriage that he had sent flying into the air and with a flick of his finger the thing was on fire and a commotion begun allowing Rime to rejoin the others in the carriage.

The rest of the ride was without incident and they finally arrived in front of a large white structure that seemed to stretch into the sky, Rime got out and helped Cyra down before Helping Elmira and Jenirus. The guards surrounded them and Rime and Cyra lead them up the steps of the temple and through the large columns. A tall curvy woman walked up to meet them and gave a light bow, before her river blue eyes met Rime's.

"We were not expecting the company of a young mage today, I should have been told of this, I would have made the proper accommodations." she spoke in a way that made Rime stare at her questioningly.

"Whatever accommodations you have will work just fine, you can just pretend we aren't here." Cyra spoke up not even look at the woman who seemed offended at what she said and another red flag shot up.

Rime looked at Cyra and she nodded, they walked in the temple and followed the woman down the corridor into a large room where royal guards were lined off, ready to protect them at any sign of trouble. Rime's eyes roamed over them and he realized that they were the actual guards which meant some of the people weren't involved in whatever trouble was brewing. They walked to the front and the Empress and Princess greeted their family standing up to talk about the babies.

Cyra kept her eyes on the Priestess the entire time trying to see what she was hiding because she too was smart enough to pick up on the fact that something wasn't right. Everyone took their seats and Rime and Cyra stood on guard, the priestess spoke and asked for the first child and that's when Rime and Cyra were sure they were right. The Duchess stepped forward with her child and the Priestess smiled reaching for the child.

But before she could touch the baby Rime shot forward and slammed himself into her sending her flying across the room, everyone looked on in shock and the Duchess's guards ran and surrounded her. Everyone was left staring between Rime and the woman, trying to figure out what to do, but the woman let out a loud screech and stood up with a start. She threw off her head dress and tore at the white gown so she was left standing in a black under suit.

"Illusionist!" Rime heard Cyra shout it out before she got among the members of the Royal family and clasped her hands together, she shut her eyes and begun to say something fast until a transparent shield appeared around the family. Rime nodded and rushed forward as the Royal Guards and Golden Dragons formed an outer shield around Cyra's own. The woman shouted something and suddenly four other people that were the exact copy of her appeared.

They started bouncing around and soon Rime lost track of who the real one was, so he opened his chain and pulled out his large behemoth sword. He threw it at the first one he saw and she tried to dodge out of the way by flicking away but the sword followed her every step and then when she couldn't move anymore the sword flew through her and she burst into a cloud of dust. He reached out his hand and the sword shot into it and he didn't waste time in tossing it at another one.

He pulled out his silver scythe and shot across the room to attack the next one, but the woman made her own sword appear the other hers doing the same thing, so they could fight off the sword that came after them one at a time. His scythe slammed into the woman's sword and then he hooked it and threw it across the room, she looked stunned for a second and Rime used that distraction to spin his scythe around knocking her head off. The separated body parts burst into dust clouds and then vanished, he had managed to take down three of them when he heard loud yelling and looked to the entrance of the temple.

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Everyone except Cyra turned to see what was happening and Rime's eyes widened at the line of beast men that stood by the Temple "How the hell did they get through our borders?!" the head of the Golden Dragons yelled and Rime shook his head. The Golden Dragon let out a roar and his men moved from surrounding the shield to going and forming a line of their own across from the beast men. Rime closed his eyes and took a deep breath an image of the Arch Mage popping in his head.

^

The man in question was still sitting in the Emperor's office when he heard Rime's voice echo in his head and he tilted his head to listen to what his young apprentice had to say. The Arch Mage shot to his feet startling the Emperor and other people that were in the room who all gave him questioning looks. "Some of the beast men have gotten through our borders and it looks like they had set a trap for the Empress and Princess."

The Emperor shot to his feet and ran to grab up his cloak and sword "take me there, I have to get them!"

The Arch Mage shook his head and the Emperor moved to protest but the older male was having none of it "That may be exactly what they want, stay here and have the Whispers make sure that none of them have infiltrated the Palace and I swear I will bring your wife and child home to you." The Arch Mage didn't wait for the Emperors reply as he flashed through the palace and soon he was out the gate and flashed to the temple.

^

Rime didn't notice the appearance of his teacher as he attacked the illusionist, in the time it had taken the Arch Mage to get her Rime had managed to kill the last clone. And was now using both his sword and scythe to attach the original woman who was now wielding two swords to fight them off. Rime shot forward and then flicked over her swinging his scythe to run a long gash down her back, the woman screamed out and faltered for a second before attacking again.

She seemed to forget about the sword as she went for blood and Rime used that to his advantage sending the sword into her back, the blade piercing through her only stopping when it hit the hilt. The woman stopped her movement and coughed, black blood came out of her mouth and she dropped to her knees. The illusion of a human that she was wearing crumbled to reveal a viper beast woman who collapsed to the ground.

Rime checked her to see she was still breathing and pulled a set of shackles from his chain placing them on her and setting them with a quick binding spell so she couldn't o anywhere even if she was faking being unconscious. Rime ran over to where Cyra was still managing to hold the Shield as the Princess begun to grow a wall of poisonous flowers just inside of it, the flowers growing up the shield hiding them from view.

Rime nodded and went to go join the fight as the Arch Mage rushed over to him and grabbed his arm making Rime stop and look at him "They are using the same magic that that woman had used, but this version is stronger for everyone that a guard takes out two more appears so you need to take them out."

Rimes eyes widened and he shook his head "I am not allowed to use my magic in public if someone of them sees it and manages to escape, our back up plan could be ruined, so you do something old man!" Rime snatched his arm from the Arch Mage's grip and ran to join the fight. He called for the guards to move back and once they did he reached his hand out a spark coming to life in each before fire exploded from his palms and caught hold of some of the beast men.

They screamed and screamed until some burst into clouds of dust and vanished while some collapsed on the floor and Rime knew that he had taken out some of the real beast. They watched as for a second there was only a few beast men and then clones started popping up like flies and Rime's eyes widened. They were twice as much people than there was before and all he could do was stare at him for a bit before the Golden Dragon attacked again and they all joined in.

Rime moved to go fight but then it hit him, he needed to kill all of the original beast men at once and there was only two types of magic that could do that, His magic and the magic of a water Guardian, Rime pictured Cyra and called to her, he watched as the shield around the plants vanished and within a second she was standing in front of him. Rime got down on his knees and placed his hands on her shoulders "do you remember that time you sucked all of the water out of the soil and made it bone dry?"

Cyra nodded and Rime gave her a sad smile "i need you to do that to those beast men, it's the only way we can save everyone so do you think you can do it?"

Cyra frowned but nodded Rime called to the Arch Mage and told him the plan, the older male frowned but nodded to the idea. With a click of his fingers all of the royal guards appeared behind them and a clear wall dropped in front of them separating the humans and then beast men. Cyra looked at Rime "I don't want to see it." Rime nodded and turned her around placing his hands over her eyes.

Cyra took a deep breath and she pictured what she had done with the earth and everyone watched in horror as a large orb formed in the air and all the beast men became nothing but dried husk who fell to the ground.

Rime turned Cyra around and snatched her up vanishing from the spot.