*Alto*

The puppet leapt off its owner's back. It was a skinny humanoid puppet with shark like teeth. It moved slowly towards us, its joints cracking with each step.

"Attack them!" the girl said.

The puppet attacked the closest person to it which happened to be Alban. He block its attack and delivered a nice fist to the stomach, sending it flying into the forest behind its owner.

"Duer!" she yelled, running over to retrieve it.

"Where is that other person?" Arima said, looking around. "I can't sense their presence."

"What about Hal?" Ulissis said.

"That's right, Hal has his team's stone," I said. "Let's go after him."

"Go with them, Adah," Zelia said, staring down the puppeteer girl. "I can handle her on my own."

Adah stopped and chanted something under her breath. A horde of wasps emerged from the corroded trees. "Protect the freshman and Onyx," the insect mage ordered.

Zelia smiled at her sister. "So we're doing this together? She must be quite strong then."

The puppeteer chuckled as she picked up her puppet. "Duer, stand! Destroy those wasps!" The puppet charged at us on all fours. The thing grabbed the wasps with its hands. As soon as it touched the wasps, they vanished.

"Fly away!" Adah yelled. The wasps departed from her and flew deeper into the forest. "Follow them, they'll lead you to Hal!"

The puppet started to creak and came to a halt. An energy barrier covered it like a cocoon.

"What's going on?" I asked, leering at it. No matter, I just needed to stop whatever it was doing."Fulgur Draco!" A lightning dragon emerged from my hands and leapt towards the puppet. My spell vanished as soon as it touched the barrier. I stepped aside. "What in the world?"

"Is this the same kind of barrier as H.E.H. used?" Ulissis asked, stepping aside.

My arms ached. "No, this is different. The other one repealed, this one absorbs." Sparks flew across my arms and hands.

"Alto," Arima said. She was about to touch me but I pulled away.

"Don't get close! I'll shock you."

Ulissis grabbed my arm and the electricity vanished. He stared back at the barrier and charged after it.

"Stop!" I said. "It'll kill you!"

He didn't listen and continued to get closer to the barrier even as it started to discharge pillars of electric energy out.

"It's almost time," the girl said. She formed a barrier around her other barrier. "Sorry, but I can't allow you to interfere."

Zelia placed her hands on the ground. "Come forth." The ground glowed bright blue. The dragon she had used to ride here emerged once more. Was that what she was up to all this time?

Ulissis touched the first barrier and went inside. He reached in to the first. His eyes became pale. His whole body shook, like I had expected, it was too strong for him.

"Pull back!" Onyx yelled.

"Listen to us," Arima yelled. "It's too dangerous."

Alban ran after Ulissis. "Come back, Uli!"

The barrier buzzed around with energy. A beam shot out and hit Ulissis in the stomach. It sent him flying past us. Adah's wasps turned around and grabbed him.

"They can touch him," Arima said, perplexed. She turned around to look at the barrier. The barrier was half gone. Inside was a highly realistic looking puppet in the form of a young man with glowing white hair. "A person? Wasn't it a puppet a moment ago?"

Adah snapped her fingers. "Was that the second figure my wasps detected?"

"Is it?" Zelia said.

"Nope," a female voice called out. A scythe appeared out of the darkness and fell over Ulissis. If it weren't for the curve on the blade and the position it hit the ground, his head would've been sliced through.

"A talking scythe!?" Onyx said.

The owner of the voice laughed. A pale hand reached out and pulled up the scythe. The shadows retreated and revealed a tall, raven haired young woman dressed in all black. The shadows continued to vanished around her and revealed Hal. "Go back and grab the stone for us this time."

"Right," Hal said, nodding. He charged at us, but his pace was slow.

"Stop," Arima said. "You're exhausted."

Hal threw a needle at her but I drew it away with my electricity. My arms started to feel weird again.

Hal smiled and said, "You two shouldn't tell me to rest, as you decided against doing so after the last event despite your wounds and fatigue."

He had a point there...

The young woman with the scythe wrapped an arm around the unconscious Ulissis. "Give us the stone and I'll return to you your teammate."

Alban gasped. "Wait, what are you doing?" he yelled.

She scoffed. "What does it look like I'm doing to you? I'm trying to bargain."

"You're blackmailing them?" Hal asked, turning around. He stared at his teammate in awe.

The girl with the puppet stared at her too. "Winning by threats?" she asked.

"This is the Hoin way," the young woman said sternly. She vanished into the shadows again, this time with Ulissis in tow. She then reappeared behind Hal. "You're tired so I will allow you to retreat." She pulled her teammate with her other hand and warped away.

"Sloane! What are you doing?" the brown haired girl cried out. She turned to look at us. "Please excuse me. Come, Duer. We need to go talk to her."

Her puppet moved slowly in an odd mix of human yet robotic like movement. For some reason its eyes were closed so it kept moving around as if blind.

The girl grabbed her now realistic puppet's hand. "Follow me."

Zelia's dragon blocked their way. "You won't get away!" Zelia said.

The girl's puppet summoned a glowing red claymore.

Zelia's dragon stepped back. "How did a child get a dragon slaying sword?" It gasped. "Wait, could this boy be a dragon mage."

"He's a puppet," Adah said, glaring at it.

"A puppet that can use magic to this extent?" Arima said.

"Quite the talented mages we've gotten to meet today," Alban said, chuckling.

The girl grabbed her puppet's hand again. "Don't fight them, we have to go and met up with Sloane and Hal. You guys follow me. I'll show you where your friend is. I can't stand by and watch as Sloane blackmails our team into victory."

Zelia petted her dragon's head. "Thanks, I appreciate your honest way of winning. So, where did you get that sword for your puppet?"

"Puppet?" the girl said. She looked back at her puppet and lowered her head sadly. "Oh, right. Well the sword used to belong to someone else, a sword mage."

"A sword mage?" Onyx asked, confused.

"Correct. A sword mage has the ability to utilize magical swords and amplify their power beyond what any elemental or other kind of mage possibly can. He collected several swords, one of which is this sword. The most prized possession he had."

Zelia bit her lip as she looked around. "You have one of the Legendary Seven Dragon swords? How did this friend of yours find it? That sword is originally from Wynaga."

"He found the sword here in Xeleria. It is barely taught in history classes anymore, but the previous Dragon king Ryoseun Sumeragi fought an inter dimensional war with our own previous Magus Maximus, Ventus Rios."

"The former king of this very country?" I said, looking around.

She nodded with a grin. "Right, the current king of this country is his grandson, Euphonium Rios. Anyways, Magus Maximus Rios fought with Emperor Sumeragi. The Dragon Emperor had fallen in love with the one who would one day become the Ventus' wife. He kidnapped her and took her away.

"However, with the help of the woman who would become the dragon Empress, Ventus managed to get her back. But before that, the two universal rulers clashed several times. During one of those exchanges, Ventus managed to knock out the sword from Ryoseun's hands, causing it to fall into the ocean west of here. My friend who dreamed of finding it found it one day on the beaches of Hoin."

"Wow, it really journeyed far," Alban said.

"So it was just a coincidence?" I asked.

"No, there are no such things as a coincidence," the girl said. "I believe it was destined to happen." Her head remained low. "The ancients would often refer to Hoin's beaches as 'Those where Destiny goes'."

Her puppet grabbed her arm as she was about to hit a tree.

"Thanks, D," she said. She stumbled forward and closed her eyes for a bit.

"You're also exhausted, aren't you?" Zelia said.

The girl rubbed her forehead and smiled wearily. "Yes, a little."

"How about we stop and rest?" I asked.

"Fine, but we'll stay here," she said. "Being too close to the jewel might be too tempting to me."

"Whatever," Onyx said, sighing. "I just want to rest."

"What about Ulissis?" Arima asked.

"You can stay here and rest," Zelia said. "I'll go rescue Ulissis on my own."

"Sister," Adah said. "That woman doesn't seem like the type we can defeat on our own, even with the boost of power we got from the president."

Boost of power? Come to think of it, Bruno said that these girls kept to themselves, but in reality it's the opposite. Why did he say that, though? Could it have been the temporary effects of whatever power boost they got?

"I can't leave one of our own in the hands of someone who isn't beyond blackmail to win a competition rather than using her magic like she's supposed to!"

"She's right," Hal's teammate said. She lifted her head. "Let's continue."

Onyx kicked the ground.

Arima patted his head. "Hold on there, we're close. Once we've dealt with this issue, we can go find somewhere nice to rest."

The girl glanced at Arima. "You can sense we're near already?"

"Yes, my ghosts have told me. I'm surprised that you made your camp so close to ours."

"Hal was the one with the idea. Either we attack you first, or you're lured toward us. Either way, we would get your marble."

If Hal was that confident then there surely have to be traps around their hideout. Or they have other cards they've yet to play. Though this could very well be a trap in of itself. Should we trust her? But we need to find Ulissis.

"It's best if we keep our distance from her," I whispered to my teammates. "Just in case."

Adah nodded. "Yeah, we aren't sure what might happen. That sister of hers could also pop back up without warning."

Onyx gulped and held his older brother's hand. He jumped at the sound of owls hooting.

Alban tried his best not to laugh. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."

"Thanks, bro," he said, smiling. "And I'll protect you in turn!"

I chuckled. Wasn't he complaining about wanting to rest a moment ago? Oh well, best to let him have his moment.

**Solar Note: Hope that you had fun reading. If you enjoyed it then click on that star :D!**