Soraru felt like he was going to go insane if he had to keep staring at the same trees for the next hour or so.

"This path is leading us nowhere..." Shima sighed along with the raven-haired.

They had walked along the dirt path for a while now, the only thing visible in sight were trees and bushes. They thought about trying to go off the path but the slight fear of being totally lost made them stick on the path, hoping to find something new, even a scenery change would be nice.

"Wonder if the others at least have a different view that isn't trees..." Soraru muttered as the purple-haired sighed again.

"Well, I think Senra might've decided to go to that place we found last time we came here."

"I just hope we find something interesting, even if it isn't related to the spell. I'd rather see something that makes all this walking worthwhile."

"I agree."

The two let out a third tired sigh as they continued to walked forward, seeing as they had no where else to go. The raven-haired felt something rest on his head, he shifted his eyes to look up to see a teru teru bozu.

"Hey Mafuteru, have something to say to us?" Shima asked as the doll smiled.

"Teru has message from master Mafu."

"Well what is it?"

"The message is: I'm bored, all we found was a small fountain that occasionally changes color."

"Eh? That's actually intriguing." Soraru said as Mafuteru continued his message.

"'It just changes color depending on the type of magic one has, allowing it to be used to heal them.' That is the message." Mafuteru happily said.

"That could be useful at least." Shima stated as the raven-haired nodded his head.

"Teru will go back to tell master Mafu that Soraru and mole prince are okay and haven't found anything useful!"

"Way to make us look pathetic..." the two watched the doll head back, "but it's nice to know that Mafu's worried about you~" the purple-haired teased.

"I'm sure if you could you'd want to check on Senra too."

Shima just looked away while Soraru smirked at his slight blush.

"A-Anyways, how much farther do you think this path goes?"

Soraru just shrugged, the purple-haired's shoulders slumped in distraught. They went back to walking down the path, seconds had gone by before they noticed that there was a strange blueish glow up ahead.

"Oh thank god, finally something besides trees."

The two sighed in relief once realizing they finally encountered something during their long walk. Soraru was about to pick up his pace before pausing.

"Think it's okay to just rush over there?"

"Who knows," Shima gave the raven-haired a bright grin, "but the ice prince is here to save us if anything goes bad."

"Maybe I'll just push you in front of me so I can run away."

"Is that something a prince should say...."

The two headed towards the glow, upon arriving they saw that there was a cave, with the glow coming from the crystals inside of it, the glow went deeper into the cave.

"Eh? Found a note." Shima said as he spotted something on one of the rocks.

Soraru walked up to it, cautiously checking his surrounding to make sure there wasn't any danger. He grabbed the note, reading it and recognizing the handwriting.

I'm sorry for leaving you three, I made sure to leave once I knew you three were capable of protecting yourselves. The reason I left without a word was because certain people were starting to realize that I was there to protect something, they didn't know what but I couldn't risk the chance of them finding out and remembering your real identities so I left to make them shift their attention away from the orphanage.

There is still the chance I'm out there. Maybe when you three become the rulers then we'll meet again. But it may also be possible that by the time you find this note I'm no longer here.

Soraru if you came here then it must mean you found that piece of paper, well the secrets in the cave, I'm sure you'll put it to good use for whatever you may need it for.

I hope you three are doing fine.

- Mia

"Uhm...." Shima nervously looked at the raven-haired, "if you don't feel okay we can just sit down for a bit..."

Soraru shook his head as he put the note into his pocket and smiled at the purple-haired, "it's fine, like she said, there's still the small chance that we'll meet her one day."

Shima just returned the smile before they looked back at the cave. "Wonder what exactly the secret is?"

"Only one way to find out." Soraru walked into the cave, the crystals glowing, making the dark gray rocks turn into shades of blue.

The two just walked through, making sure not to trip over anything until they came across a perfectly round rock in the center. On the rock was some type of book, the cover looking all worn out, with some pieces ripped off.

"Well, if it's been here for who knows how long then it makes sense that it wouldn't be in perfect condition." Shima stated as the raven-haired grabbed it, "w-wait! You're just gonna grab it that easily?!?"

"We're fine." Soraru reassured as the purple-haired sighed.

"Sometimes your calmness and no reactions is concerning."

The raven-haired flipped through the pages, each page ranged from how the princes' powers are considered rare to how some humans can use spells to give them powers. He could see on some pages that the word 'forbidden' and 'unstable' are written on them.

"So those are the ones that shouldn't be used." Soraru muttered as he flipped through a couple more before closing the book, "though none of them say anything about removing or taking away someone's power."

"So it wasn't that useful..." Shima said in slight disappointment as he crossed his arms, "but at least it's something."

"Yeah, well since there's nothing else here then we should head back." Soraru held onto the book tight as they exited out of the cave.

Shima got out first, before immediately noticing that the area seemed kinda odd all of the sudden. He turned to looked at the raven-haired.

"We're the only ones that know about this place.....right?"

"Uh....I think so....." Soraru replied, confused by the male's question, "why do you ask?"

The purple-haired's expression changed into a worrisome look. "Doesn't it feel like we're not alone anymore?"

The raven-haired remained silent as he felt a chill go down his spine. Shima if you're joking around I will kill you. Why now? Can't I get at least a break?

"L-Let's just quickly get out of here." Soraru suggested, to which the purple-haired eagerly agreed to.

They took one step forward before falling onto concrete with a thud.

"O-Ow...."

They sat up before realizing they were no longer surrounded by trees or the cave, rather now they were staring at the sight of stone walls and bars surrounding them.

"Y-You can't be serious....." Shima muttered, tensing up once they heard a familiar laugh.

"Well too bad~"

Haru grinned at them from the other side of the bars. "Hope that fall didn't hurt you guys."

"Oi, can't you just die!?" Soraru shouted in annoyance, "also how? You shouldn't be able to make portals from the human world to here! Only Eve can!"

"It's thanks to your friend~" Haru gestured towards Sou, who then collapsed in exhaustion.

"Sou?!?" Shima shouted worriedly as the black haired male waved his hand.

"He's fine, creating portals just takes a toll out on him since Eve's not around, right now he's too tired to even hear you guys." He smiled at them, "anyways, hope you enjoyed the small break we gave you guys and thanks~"

Soraru and Shima froze when they saw the male pick up the book. This can't get any worse, Soraru groaned as Haru's 'kind' smile made them want to shout in frustration.

"Thanks for bringing this to us~ and now you two can relax in this small cell for all your hard work."

"Why do you even need that!?!"
"It has no use for you."

"Well, we can't have you guys finding a way to stop us."

"W-Well you're wasting your time," Soraru said, "because there's nothing in there that would've helped us anyways."

Haru frowned at the fact that the raven-haired was slightly right, flipping through the pages he saw nothing of use, all the spells and such they already knew.

"That sucks...." Haru then went back to his usual smiling self, "but oh well~ it still has some use."

He snapped his fingers, the two males saw that behind the black haired male were exact copies of them.

"With you two stuck here the others would be suspicious of your disappearance so I'll have these be there so your friends know that you're okay~"

"T-That won't work!" Shima quickly replied, "c-cause Yuuto can easily spot the difference!"

"Oh? You mean the Yuuto that's right here?"

The two remained silent as they saw where the male had gestured to, there laying unconscious on the ground was the teal-haired male.

"H-How—?! Y-Yuuto!"
"O-Oi Y-Yuuto! Get up!"

"Don't bother~ He won't wake up until I allow it." Haru said in a sing-song tone as he looked at the illusions of Soraru and Shima, "well, I guess you should go meet your friends again, they must be worried~"

Soraru was about to use his powers to attack Haru before collapsing on the floor due to a sudden pain. A confused look was on his face as he felt another powerful shock when trying again.

"Be careful~ you wouldn't want to hurt yourself~"

"W-What?"

"You didn't think I'd just lock you in here without making sure you can't escape." Haru shook his head as if disappointed, "this cell reacts when powers are used in it, hurting the person in the process."

"So in the end we're left powerless...." Shima muttered as Haru handed the book to the illusions.

"These illusions are almost like the real thing so it makes it harder to tell the difference."

"T-They won't be easily tricked." Soraru stated as the black haired male grinned.

"How sure can you be? Then again, you wouldn't like the thought of your precious boyfriend not being able to tell the difference, now would you?"

Soraru just glared at the male, but a small sense of fear bubbled in him.

"Y-You're just going to let us have the book?" Shima exclaimed in shock.

"It's nothing of use to you guys, it won't help you find a way to stop us entirely, and even if you do find something in it," Haru gave them a sinister smile, "it's fun to see you guys get so close to a chance of winning only to have it snatched away from you at the last moment."

"Well, that's enough talking enjoy your short time in prison because it won't last long. After all, did you think we'd let the king's killer live?"

Soraru widened his eyes as the black haired male controlled Sou again to create the portal and send the illusions. Sou collapsed again, this time passing out for a while.

"S-Sou!"

"I'll bring Sou to his older brother to rest, spend your precious last moments wisely." Haru grabbed the brown haired male and left, leaving the two males with an unconscious Yuuto.

*******

Back in the human world, the others were at the lake, awaiting for the rest to come, well they were waiting for Soraru and Shima to be exact.

"If they didn't find anything then we wasted time for nothing." Urata muttered as the redhead glanced up from playing around with the fire cat.

"We can at least say we tried."

Mafu perked up once he spotted the raven-haired and purple-haired. He quickly got off the rock he was sitting on and approached the two, hugging the raven-haired.

"You're back~"

"Yep, and we actually found something." 'Soraru' said as the purple-haired grinned.

"See, Mafuteru was wrong about us being useless."

"What's that book about?" Senra asked as the male opened it up and flipped the pages.

"Just more info about spells, there's also a few forbidden and unstable spells."

"Unstable? That's new." Urata said as the raven-haired shrugged.

"Guess that just means the spells are so bad that it can lead to corruption or something like that."

"Anything about the spell that we need?" Lon asked as the two shook their heads.

"But maybe we'll find some way to learn something from it." 'Shima' said as the others nodded their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, we shouldn't toss it away that quick." Kuro exclaimed eagerly as the purple-haired gave the book to Mafu.

"We'll leave it to you Mafu."

"Got it!"

"We should talk about it more once we're back at your house." Kashitaro said as they made their way back to the princes' house.

Neither of them noticing a single thing that seemed wrong.

*******

Soraru glanced at the teal-haired worriedly. Please tell me Yuuto's okay... He noticed a collar around the male's neck, assuming it might be something to prevent the teal-haired from using his powers.

"T-This is bad....is there really no way we can tell the others about what's happening....?" Shima asked, he desperately wanted to do something.

"We just have to escape from this cell." Soraru was about to try using his powers again before Shima stopped him.

"D-Don't try using your powers! Y-you can't get hurt again."

"B-But—!"

"Mafu wouldn't want you to be severely injured." The purple-haired sighed as he plopped himself on the ground, "great, they have to also find and rescue us now...."

Soraru joined the male on the floor with a tired look on his face.

"And just when we were starting to figure things out...."

The two shifted their eyes back to the teal-haired male before looking at each other with worried looks, afraid of the danger the others would be in. Please, let them be able to notice something's wrong. Let them be safe....

—————————————
A/n

*drops a chapter and yeets self back into the unknown*

I've been busy but here you have a new chapter, sorry for the long wait (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

Hope you enjoyed the chapter~