The sky swirled with deep blue clouds as the team felt their blood freeze. They all turned toward their leader and the freezing land around her. But, as if the sky was taking what belongs to it, the blood from the corpses was floating upward.
"The Seika is gone?" she glared at the hologram as the rest of the group shivered. "Where was he last seen?"
"We were creating an array in Runera, and we succeeded. However, after the success, we entered the room where the Seika was activating the array. There was nothing but clothes of the Seika."
Boom!
The land shook as an overwhelming aura appeared around the princess. "I will be there," rose the cold princess into the air, her wings growing in span to cover at least ten meters. Feathers created from ice began to appear on the wings as she turned toward her team. "You will all follow me to Runera. Along the way, investigate the rumors. Those who refuse to cooperate will die."
This was no longer a command but a threat. The words were spoken so easily that the group did not think she was bluffing them. Red stared at the princess in awe, having her thoughts.
***
'This is… different,' thought Rae as she watched the princess flap her wings and disappear. The simple aftermath of her flights destroyed half of the forest, making the ground shake beneath them.
Her hand was trembling, both from the cold and the fear. Rae was confused about how her strength suddenly took a leap. However, the rage that she exhibited was stronger than the one in her heart.
'A love-fueled rage,' watched Rae the land of frozen trees as the princess turned into a meteor that raced back toward Runera. This was the evidence of her love for the man in question.
Rae never understood love. There was only one emotion that always burned within her: rage. It did not matter what made her angry, but she found her feelings to grow unrestrained. That rage has been ongoing ever since she was aware of herself.
A man appeared in her vision, tall and mighty. His wings covered the sky and earth in their majestic size. This was one of the few things she remembered about her past identity, which the Seika wanted her to retrieve.
However, Rae lied to Seika about why she did not want to remember. It was not the fear of losing her identity because these memories would still be the same. What made her afraid was why she was angry all of the time.
"We need to return, Newbie," called her the giant woman. "That princess or whatever seemed to be unstable, and we need to hurry up and return. However, I will give you some advice. Do not mention the Seika in front of her."
"Why?" frowned Rae as she turned to the giant. "I cannot understand why she is so protective of that man. I can tell that she is stronger than any of us, so why does she keep clinging to something as pathetic as love?"
"You are just a kid," laughed the giant. "She is strong because of that clinging, idiot. I was once the same with my children. It might be a different kind of love, but I would have destroyed the world for them. We all need things to bind us to this life."
Rae could not understand. There was only one pursuit in her heart ever since she woke up in the slave's auction: strength. The feeling of fear and loss fueled that pursuit, unwilling to find any boundaries to stop. Rage was another one of those uncontrollable emotions. However, it was never love.
"Does that mean I am still weak?" The giant picked up Rae like the rest of the team were, and the giant placed her on the left shoulder.
"We have no time for your dramatic moments, newbie," said the man with long hair. "We need to return if we want to stay alive. That woman is not a joke. I saw her kill a noble who badmouthed the Seika."
"Yikes," the young boy acted scared. "I wonder how these people think, being so crazy," he said innocently, and the group all glanced at him.
The giant carried them and ran, crossing mountains and forests using her giant body and speed. This was their primary method of transportations after the young boy kept eating their horses.
Rae stared into the distant, shimmering horizon where the princess went. There was one similarity between them. Love was her fuel, while Rae was full of rage.
Runera looked more beautiful than any of them could imagine. A gentle barrier surrounded it, but the shimmering lights and buildings inside the bowel created by the mountain and the river made their blood boil.
"The Seika might be weak, but he sure as hell knows how to build his cities," laughed a bald man. "However, there is some tension in the air."
"The grand opening of their trade should happen tomorrow morning," reported the giant woman. "We may not have encountered any enemies, but this feels like the quiet before the storm.
***
Dia walked into the tower where the Seika was last seen, reminding herself again that she could not lose control because she needed to find him. However, she could feel the world around her freezing.
'I always feel cold, but why does it bother me now?'
A man was sitting outside the room, in a narrow path that led into it. This man was reported to be Seika's closest friend, and Arthur mentioned him in his letters.
"You must be grandmaster Oriole, Arthur's friend from his world," she said while walking toward him. The man snapped his eyes in surprise at her arrival.
"You must be the only person who knows his true name," smiled the grandmaster as he stood, "and the person he loved the most."
His words made her heart tremble in both ecstasy and fear, but the smile on his face disturbed. The rage went unbridled as she glared at the grandmaster.
"How can you smile after you fail to protect him?" her voice lashed out like a whip, but the grandmaster was not affected.
"I have absolute faith in Arthur, and I never thought that he needed protection," the grandmaster said with a wave of his hand.
Dia gnashed her teeth until they crackled. Then, she waved her hands and sent countless tiny shards toward the grandmaster, which lifted him and pinned him to the giant door.
"You are the same as the others, burdening Arthur with countless responsibilities and faith. I thought you were his friend, but you are just another one of those dependent on him."
Even though the countless ice shards hung him by his clothes, the grandmaster did not look surprised. On the contrary, Dia was angrier when she saw his lack of reaction.
"I will prevent Arthur from going back if all of his friends are like you," she said before the ice shards let go of the grandmaster. "You better start praying that I find him. Otherwise, I will kill you."
Her hands spread as she laid them on the door and pushed it open. The room behind the door was whitish, with many runic lines glowing. It was clean except for the clothes in their center.
"The clothes are arranged," she muttered as she staggered. "This does not make sense. The only way for the clothes to look like this would be…"
"…that the Seika turned to nothing," muttered Oriole as he entered after her. "We found the room this way after feeling abnormal changes in the array. I did not know what to do, so I executed the emergency protocol that the Seika arranged if something happens to him."
"What is that protocol?" she asked as she crouched in front of the clothes. There was everything, shaped into a humanoid painting on the ground.
"The first step is to contact you. Second, all of his authority will be transferred to you. You are the current lord of Runera, and we need you."
Diana felt like the words did not reach her anymore. All she could think about was that if the Seika never appeared again, she would have nothing to remember him. Their last moments were their stupid meeting before the war summit.
Runera could be the most important work the Seika did in this world. A city of infinite possibilities that the Seika created from scratch. However, he trusted Dia to lead it if something happened to him.
"I cannot care less about Runera, grandmaster," she said while gritting her teeth. "I will hunt down every enemy the Seika has if that's what it takes to find him."
"You forget what Arthur wants. The amount of time and effort he placed into this was close to madness. I did not see him sleep for the past month, and you can only imagine. This is what he wants you to do."
"I am not going to sit and sell artifacts while he is gone!"
"That is fine too because the disappearance of the lord is an opportunity for his enemies to strike Runera," said the grandmaster. "A storm is coming."
