The arms, covered in black cloth, wrapped around Sol and pulled him into the wall. Lucy turned around the moment the arms left the wall, but Sol was already halfway through the wall before she could react. She charged the disappearing Sol, and as only his feet were outside the wall, she went head-first into it.

But instead of crashing into the wall, she passed through it. The lack of collision was short-lived as her body slammed into Sol and his assailant. An enshrouded figure in black robes crashed to the floor while Sol’s eyes popped out of his head. Lucy grabbed Sol by the collar and jumped back from the figure, causing his eyes to pop out more from the strangulation.

“Wait!” A feminine voice yelled quietly, raising a hand up. Her tone sounded closer to urgency over panic. Lucy remained guarded and analyzed the person and surroundings.

The room was lit solely by the fireplace at the opposite end of the new arrivals. A long wooden table was surrounded by chairs, all atop a rug. But apart from posts on the walls that held candles and a couple of matching chairs set in front of the fireplace, the room lacked other furniture. It seemed to double as a dining and living room.

The shadows from the fire acted as a veil for the hooded assailant’s facial features. However, despite their mysterious demeanor, the black-robed assailant was no more than five feet tall. The assailant used their raised hand and pulled their hood back, revealing a youthful girl with porcelain skin and glossy black hair.

“I was trying to help you. Your mother wasn’t exaggerating when she mentioned how impressive you are.” She watched Sol fly up from his lynched position to beside his sister.

“Our mom?” Sol asked.

“Yes, Nicky. She likes to go on and on about you both. While there can be abandoned babies every now and then, Nicky’s description of Lucy’s strength made it obvious.” She brushed off her robes and stood up. Lucy’s suspicious stare seemed to ease upon hearing her answer, but she remained on guard.

“But how come you helped us?” Sol pressed on, causing the stranger to briefly pause at his line of questioning briefly.

“Normally, I wouldn’t help, but I owe your mother a lot,” she said flatly.

‘Well, at least she’s honest.’

“So, what was that about?” Sol nodded at the wall they just came through.

“Those men were made aware by the former minor noble, Javion, that Nicky went to the city today, and he gave them two magical cubes. One that will let them go undetected past the invisible barrier surrounding your house, and another that will cause a fire that will quickly encase the house in flames.” Lucy’s eyes turned from vigilant to fiery as she heard about the last part.

“Easy, tiger.” Sol placed a hand in front of Lucy, sensing her bloodlust. That same bloodlust shot to him due to his condescending idiom. He continued, “Why are they doing this?”

“The noble - I’m not sure. But not all residents are a fan of the stability she’s introduced, or they are personally jealous of her. Either way, they are happy to help with the right incentives.” Her cadence remained flat. Sol frowned in quiet contemplation but let out a sigh reaching a dead end in thought.

“One last thing before we go. What is your name?”

“I’m Cali. Wait, before you go?” The steady adult demeanor she’s been carrying broke slightly.

“Well, we can’t really let them burn down our house.” Sol looked over to Lucy, who gave him an affirmative nod. The two started their way to the corridor but were interrupted.

“Wait, while the three of them are just random thugs, Javion used to serve as a knight before being exiled.”

“We’re still going.” Lucy chimed in for the first time with a determined voice before resuming her walk. Sol let out a sigh and followed after her.

“Nicky can repair the house easily when she gets back. What matters is that you two are safe. Knights are really strong.” More of Cali’s inner child came out in her slight exacerbation, coming out more as she spoke because her reasoning didn’t slow down the twins one bit. But just as Sol and Lucy were heading into the corridor, the wall that they entered from blasted open, and in through the new makeshift doorway came the well-dressed man from earlier, Javion.

“Found you,” said Javion in a singsongy, playful voice. He smiled, twisting the tiny wrinkles on his face, and continued, “So this is where you’ve been hiding.”

Javion placed his hand on his sword and leisurely stepped towards Cali, who flew back to the other side. Cali whipped her head over to the twins to make sure they were running away, but her eyes widened when she saw them in place and Sol with one arm raised. A wind blade launched at the distracted Javion.

The wind blade flew at breakneck speeds across the room, but it met contact with Javion’s sword, which became unsheathed before Sol could notice. The wind blade dispersed, only causing Javion’s dark hair to tousle. Sol’s expression turned serious.

“Oh? You must be that witch's kid, and you’re with the witch’s little helper. It seems the monster mother has had a monster baby.” Not bothering to listen to the villain’s dialogue, Sol started flying before he finished. He flew underneath the kitchen table and blocked the area between him and Javion with it. Sol reinforced the table with his magic and approached like a battering ram.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Javion’s blade met little resistance as it sliced through the table. The two halves of the table moved to each side of him, but Sol still wasn’t in view. The two halves’ fight path changed again as they turned to close in on Javion, attempting to sandwich him. But Javion jumped and all left were the table tops running into each other and a clearly visible Sol behind one of the halves.

Javion kicked down at Sol at a rate giving no time for him to dodge, but multiple layers of physical mana formed at the point of impact. His foot quickly broke the layers, but the momentum reached Sol first, projecting him downwards. Sol rapidly decelerated himself and only made light contact with the floor. He placed his hand on the ground and up came a spike of earth to impale the air-suspended Javion.

Javion caught the tip of the earth spike and used it to launch himself at Sol. Sol evaded by flying back to his allies.

‘I could use some help you two!’ Not having enough room to talk, Sol could only briefly look at them. While Cali stood ready for a chance to switch in, Lucy stood there with a leisurely stance watching the fight.

‘Ah, you bitch.’ Sol complained before redirecting his attention back to Javion, who now landed back on the ground. The fight proceeded with Sol frantically flying around the room, trying to stay out of Javion’s blade range, shooting wind blades while he ran, but each one was easily sliced in two.

‘My soul energy is running low. I guess all I have to try is this…” Sol soared to the broken wall from earlier, threatening to escape toward authorities. Javion’s speed accelerated at the fleeing Sol.

Sol made it through the doorway, but instead of flying down the street to the authorities, he spun his body and extended his arm forward. Javion just arrived at the makeshift doorway as a light formed in Sol’s hand. That light turned into a pillar of flame that shot out from Sol’s hand at Javion, whose momentum carried him in a straight line at the blast.

Javion blocked his face with his arms. Sol continued the flurry of flames at the defending Javion, draining out the remainder of his energy. But before the chance to run empty, Sol felt a crushing impact on his stomach.

A pillar of earth landed on Sol’s stomach. His instincts kicked in and formed a mana barrier at the point of impact and behind him, but he was still sent crashing into the wall behind. His body dropped to the ground, and blood spurted from his mouth. From his position, he saw Javion without even a fried hair and a layer of mana in front of him.

‘So, he could use magic the whole time? That’s not good.’ Sol lay there helplessly with an unnoticed grin, ready to say hello to God again after a final struggle, but when Javion dropped his guarded arms down, Sol saw a pained expression on his face. Javion whipped around with his sword en garde, revealing to Sol a deep gash running across his back.

‘It looks like they were able to use that opening.’ Sol’s grin turned more into a content smile as he watched in.

Lucy remained in her leisurely position, but Cali had stepped forward and her arm extended. She had been worried about friendly fire due to the nature of her ranged fighting but had finally found a moment to interject. Javion adjusted his lumbered breathing, and while his wound didn’t close at all, the bleeding slowed down.

“You haven’t run away yet?” Javion taunted while coating his blade in an invisible aura and taking a more serious stance.

His words were only met with what looked like a pitch-black blade of wind flying at him. He parried successfully, but his sword was pushed back, and the aura around his blade nearly vanished. Javion let out a displeased look.

Dark blades were successively shot out, but instead of his usual parry, Javion focused on dodging. He sprinted around the room, slowly closing the distance on Cali. He replied with his own wind blades, fireballs, and earth spikes, but all were met with a wall of dark energy and were consumed on impact.

‘Really. Does this world have any normal kids?’ Sol, who managed to float himself to the hole in the wall, mused to himself.

The walls, ceilings, floors, and furniture had clean cuts running through them. Some of the dark blades left wounds on the periphery of his body, leaving shallow but non-threatening cuts. Javion closed the distance meticulously and finally made it in range.

He lunged forward, extending his sword to the stationary Cali, but before he could close the distance, a vacuuming force pulled his blade to the side and plunged it into the ground. He tried to jump back, but another vacuuming suction pulled him closer to a black spiral in Cali’s hand. Another dark blade formed at the base of her hand, and Javion rapidly approached it. But he managed to meet her hand with his and let out a wicked smile.

A blast of aura erupted from his hand and clashed with Cali’s hand. The confrontation started equal, but the years of training his aura allowed him to beat Cali in the simplest method - overpowering her.

Javion’s hand blew back Cali’s hand that was casting magic, leaving her wide open. His other fist rushed forward and smashed into her stomach. Cali slammed into the wall and coughed up a mouth full of blood. She landed, her legs shaking, and looked over at Sol, then to the relaxed Lucy.

“You two don’t stand a chance. Take your brother away. I can escape after you two leave.” Cali coughed out blood.

“You think I’d let you?” Javion cut in. But ignoring his statement Lucy looked back to Cali.

“You think this is about having a chance? Do you think my brother was dumb enough to think he’d win?”

‘Oi.’

“But sometimes there are battles you have to take regardless of the odds.” For the first time, Lucy’s sentences came out intelligible. Her R’s rolled like some unknown accent, and certain letters were pronounced oddly, but her words were comprehensible.

Lucy sauntered to the fireplace exuding a domineering aura. Javion grabbed his sword from the ground and stood en garde, carefully watching her, despite her being less than half his size. She took the fire iron from the fireplace, which was the same height as herself, and swung at the air in Javian’s direction.

Sol looked on at the scene with tired astonishment. He began moving the energy from his soul core and connecting it to his eyes. His body shook in the familiar cold sensation of channeling magic. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw an aura surrounding himself.

His blue aura barely went beyond his skin and faded to the point of being barely visible. He looked at the gasping Cali, her dark aura stretching a few inches, sucking in the surrounding light. His eyes widened at the sight of Javian’s blood-red aura, reaching as far as his wing span would go, raging like a fire.

Sol's mouth fell agape, looking at Lucy. Despite her small size, her aura made up the same area as Javian’s. But it wasn’t the size alone that shocked him. Lucy’s aura was a noble gold that flowed fluidly around her. It was almost blinding.

The golden aura encased her fire iron, and she charged forward.