The seekers climbed the mountains. They had to reach a certain village. The hours-long climb made them exhausted, but they finally reached the appropriate peak.

"I told you to summon Kipperin, and Tarnac would have cloned him! We would have saved a lot of time", Cathy said to her brother.

"Climbing has never hurt anyone, sis" he replied.

"No one expected the village would be that high!"

"Okay, okay. Lay off him. He sometimes makes not-so-well-thought-out decisions" Den defended his friend.

"I'm not criticizing him. I just offered him a lighter and faster alternative, which he simply didn't agree to. But he could have!"

Suddenly, a figure of a man was heading towards the team.

"Welcome to the village of the god Apeliotes. What motivated you to visit our little homeland?" he asked.

"Many people suggested we should stop here. We are..." Sophie began.

"We are students, and we would like to investigate how the wind blows in this place" Lok interjected.

Casterwill looked suspiciously at the leader.

"Oh, that's interesting. Come with me" the man gestured for them to follow him.

The friends looked at each other and followed the local.

"Even preschoolers could come up with such stories" Sophie whispered to her boyfriend.

"We need to get to the source of the eastern wind, so what would you have said?" he quietly asked his partner.

"If you hadn't interrupted me, you would have found out."

They walked through a street filled with wooden houses, their roofs covered with a thick layer of snow. Smoke rose from the chimneys. Near the houses, children were building snowmen, and some of them were playing snowball fights.

After a few minutes, the team stood before the statue of Apeliotes. It depicted a sculpted figure of a man with wings instead of arms.

"I think you'll be able to investigate something around the statue" the man said.

"What is the history behind the creation of this sculpture?" Cathy asked.

"In ancient times, the god Apeliotes found a peace in this place. He wanted his followers to be safe there" the man explained.

Cathy gazed at the figure of the Greek god of the eastern wind.

"Does he point to something?" she wondered.

She approached the sculpture and looked in the direction indicated by one of its wings.

"What's there?" she pointed towards the indentation formed in the mountain.

"That's the forbidden zone. The wind in that place is uncontrollable. Many daredevils tried to calm it down, but it always ended tragically," the local summarized.

"Let's see if it's really that dangerous" Lok ordered.

"Just a moment. You didn't come here just to investigate how the wind blows, did you?" the man questioned.

"Of course, we did. But we're also interested in mysterious places like this" Sophie said.

"Malia, Cathy. Take the measurements. The rest of us, let's go" Lok ordered.

"This is dangerous! Don't go there!" the villager tried to convince them.

"We're going at our own risk" the leader replied.

"I apologize for my brother. He's a very keen fan of history. And he's even more interested in paranormal phenomena and things like that" Cathy tried to handle the situation.

The villager snorted and resignedly went his own way. The girls followed the man with their eyes.

"Have you ever taken wind measurements before?" Malia asked.

The remaining seekers stood at the cliff.

"Wow. That guy wasn't lying" Lok remarked.

The wind blew with a force comparable to that during the most massive hurricanes. Lambert picked up a small stone and threw it into the abyss. The small rock moved upwards at a rapid pace. The leader looked towards the sky.

"The wind must be coming out from there" he muttered.

He summoned Kipperin.

"I'll check what's going on there. Go to the girls" the boy commanded.

"Be careful" Sophie said.

Lambert slowly ascended upwards and was immediately caught by the air current. Initially, he was terrified, but the flying creature assured him that it had everything under control. He found himself at the exit point of the wind stream. Lok landed on a snowy chimney. He looked around.

"There's nothing here" he stated to himself.

"According to the Holotome, the wind passes between the cave entrance and the statue. And in the place where you were a moment ago, it blows to the east" Cathy stated, analyzing the pixelated visualization.

The attention of Sophie was drawn by the inhabitants who were placing feathers in front of the statue of Apeliotes. The natives bowed and stepped back a few steps. The feathers were blown towards the forbidden zone.

"Oh. The current started again" Lambert said.

"Probably because someone just offered feathers as a sacrifice" Casterwill replied.

Suddenly, Malia grabbed her head and hissed.

"Everything okay?" Harrison asked.

"Not at all. I sensed a hostile, familiar aura" she tried to glance in the direction the Huntik team came from, but the path was blocked by the village buildings.

"Let's hide. Let's see what they're up to" Sophie suggested.

"I think it won't help. Raypulse" Den aimed at the Midnight Rook, who was sitting on a branch of a nearby tree.

The bird flew towards the village entrance. After a while, they noticed a group of six people. Preparing in advance, they attacked.

"Surprise" Den said as he laid Soril on the ground.

Fears recoiled. Each of the hunters started fighting with a different member of the enemy group. Since the numbers were uneven, Cherit with the support of the Free Shooter had to deal with the sixth Spiral. The enemy summoned Apinata to get rid of one of the Titans. Lambert's Titan returned to the amulet. Cherit spewed his stream of blue-violet energy at the opponent. He immediately weakened, but the most important thing for him was that he managed to defeat the enemy summoner. The Spiral member moved towards Sophie.

"Let's go, Sabriel!" Casterwill summoned her friend.

The girl tried to kick her opponent. The Spiral member avoided it. He missed Sophie with Ammoniacy. Unexpectedly, she was knocked down by Den. They quickly got up. Both seekers saw Soril heading towards them.

"For heaven's sake, I'm not an air cushion for you to land on" she muttered.

"Complain to Soril. He threw me like this" Fears replied.

"Complain, you say? That's too much" Casterwill said and put a ring with a white eye on her finger.

She summoned Phoenix. The legendary bird attacked with fire towards the Spiral members.

"Let's see if he can handle it" he smiled. "Show them dominance, Thornmir!" Soril summoned the golem.

"Gather!" Sophie commanded.

The remaining seekers withdrew to the two friends.

"We have to last until Lok returns" she said to her friends.

The team leader flew ahead. At some point, he noticed a large pile of feathers of various sizes. He landed in front of it.

"Wow. Where did all these come from? And in the middle of nowhere?" he wondered quietly.

"Visible from above, invisible from below." Those words from the riddle came back to him. What if they misinterpreted it and this wasn't the village after all? On the other hand, he realized that it was the only location of its kind in the world.

"Or maybe that's it? These feathers can be seen from above, but from the village side, or from below, they're not visible" he said to himself.

Unexpectedly, the feathers turned into a tornado, and after a while, they took the shape of a person. The boy gasped, taking a few steps back. He wasn't aware of what had just happened. After fractions of seconds, he realized that it was the same figure he saw on the statue a few minutes ago.

"Welcome, young man. Since you've made it here, you must be in need of power to save the world" Apeliotes began.

"We are searching for the Legendary Titan of Wind. One of the four elemental titans" Lok said.

"To possess it, you must defeat the untamed source of wind. One of my brothers set this trap for the inhabitants of my village. Be careful, brave man."

"Untamed source of wind? Where is it?" he asked.

He didn't get an answer as the figure of the man dissolved into the air. Lok returned back to the "forbidden zone." He looked down.

"Only one thing comes to mind" he muttered. "Kipperin. Do you think we can make it to the bottom?" he asked.

The creature cawed, and the boy heard "we can try" in his mind. They glided down. The current of wind was so strong that diving in headfirst didn't work. They were almost immediately pushed above the air corridor.

"Let's think" he said to himself.

He replayed in his mind what had happened just a while ago. When the elemental caught him in its grasp, he kept spinning in circles and getting higher. It dawned on him that maybe he should have tried playing it from the other side. Lambert flew into the air corridor but flew in the opposite direction. The resistance was no longer felt. Kipperin easily traversed through the air tunnel. Until they reached the bottom. They flew into another alcove. In the distance, glowing white eyes were visible, and after a moment, the scream of the mysterious creature.

"Our friend is hiding here" Lok said, then summoned the Willblade.

The fight between the groups continued. Sophie activated the synchronised attack. This caused every move she made to be mirrored by her titan: Sabriel. The female warrior finished off one of the Desert Warriors by cutting him in half with one of her golden swords. Meanwhile, Casterwill knocked down one of the Spiral members. She looked towards her remaining friends. She saw Soril attacking Malia.

"Why do you avoid me? You can't cheat your destiny" the man said.

Lyssa glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing her friend heading towards them. She snorted.

"Still not giving up? Too bad. We'll settle this soon. I guarantee you'll end up in hell" she smiled, then used Darkfog.

She quickly activated the Visiosphere and directed Sophie in the direction she needed to go. Casterwill aimed Kindlestrike at the opponent, and the medic added a Augerfrost.

Thornmir cut through the Phoenix with his axes. Sophie knelt for a moment due to the weakening caused by her titan returning to the amulet. The golem headed towards the girl. Malia took her companion's hand and, using a Hyperstride, dodged the attack aimed by the huge cleaver.

Cathy was knocked down by her opponent. She energetically got up, then struck her opponent in the face. She used Hyperstride to protect the girls from Soril. Unexpectedly, another Spiral member used Raypulse, and the girl flew beyond the village boundaries.

"Cathy!" Malia and Sophie shouted simultaneously.

Fears, noticing what had happened, aggressively used Dragonfist on the opponent and headed towards the girls. Lambert was falling. She closed his eyes. She didn't want to see his end, which was to come in the next few seconds.

"If only I had Kipperin like my brother..." the girl thought.

Unexpectedly, she felt the wings of the mentioned creature tied to her back, which led her to the nearest rocky ledge and disappeared immediately after.

"What was that?" she asked herself in disbelief.

She felt a surge of energy. She reached into her pouch. The blue crystal in the amulet shone brighter than usual.

"Fool their senses, Tarnac!" the girl summoned the powerbonded titan.

The elven titan gained golden additions to his blue robe, and his boots gained golden soles.

"Everything alright?" Den shouted from above.

The girl looked towards her friend.

"More than alright!" she replied, joyfully.

She hadn't realized what had happened yet. She was on the brink of death, but she had been saved. Lambert asked her ally to clone Kipperin. Together, they soared upwards and landed with the rest of the team after a while.

"Tarnac has become powerbonded!" Sophie remarked when she saw the new look of the elf.

"Powerbonded Tarnac, clone Thornmir" she commanded.

After a moment, the request was fulfilled. The golem's copy appeared behind the original. They pushed their axes aside and began to jostle.

"Powerboost" Malia used a stream of pink power to recharge the cloned giant.

The copied titan gained strength and pushed Thornmir to the edge of the cliff. Both of them fell outside the village area. After a while, the titan returned to its amulet. Soril reached for another amulet, but a strong wind blew towards the group of people in black and white attire. It lifted them up, then pushed them beyond the village boundary. Only the sounds of terror from the falling Spiral members could be heard.

"I heard you had some trouble" Lok landed in front of the team.

Next to him stood a new friend. He was huge. It turned out to be a bird on four legs. It was brown-feathered from the back, and its wings, limbs, and belly were covered in white feathers.

"Come back to the amulet, Feathery Griffon!" Lambert raised his hand, and a silver ring with a white eye appeared on his finger.

***

Two seekers sat on the roof, admiring the surroundings of Venice. The sun was slowly heading towards the horizon.

"You're getting better and better. And that attack you and Sophie did on Soril... I probably couldn't have done it better" Harrison spoke up.

"Thanks. There's just over a month left until the longest day of the year" Malia sighed without enthusiasm.

"You'll see. You can do even more in this month. And we'll help you" Fears said, putting his arm around Malia without hesitation.

The girl just laughed and tapped him on the tip of his nose with her finger. After a moment, the boy turned his head the other way and sneezed.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" he asked with a sour expression.

"Me? No way" she laughed.

The island of Sutos was visited again by a group from the Spiral of Death. The king waited outside the city gates with his guards. Arnetta, accompanied by two people, approached the walls.

"Have you decided, darling?" she asked.

"It wasn't easy, but..." Grier began.

Several days earlier

"I called you here to inform you of the decision I've made" the king began.

"You won't agree to this sick arrangement, will you?" one of his subordinates asked.

"I know you were counting on this. With a heavy heart, I've decided that you'll join the Death Spiral. You'll assist them until they achieve their goal.

The guards were stunned, surprised, and disappointed by their ruler's decision. Most of them felt like they had been treated as commodities. One of the guards saw an opportunity to escape from under Grier's thumb.

"I apologize to you all. I promise to make it up to you. You can pack up. Wilder. Stay for a moment" Grier said.

The two men waited until they were alone in the throne room.

"What's this about?" the guard asked.

"Since I forcibly took over leadership of the Organization, I've noticed your improvement. My teachings on how to be a good leader have been applied by you. It's no coincidence that you've been promoted to commander of the side guard" Grier explained.

"True. You taught me how to treat people and what true leadership means. I'm not surprised that there's peace on the island, and everyone helps each other selflessly. Of course, except for those thugs who still live through occasional civil wars. That's the true power of uniting people without a sense of power over them."

During his stay on Sutos, Wilder reassessed certain things. He began to see his mistakes. He decided he wouldn't make them again. Observing Grier, he noticed many things he could have done differently in the past.

Among other things, when Dante's team invaded the Professor's castle. He could have formed an alliance with the Casterwills. Unfortunately, he was overshadowed by the vision of power and control over everything and everyone, just like the first leader of the Organization. He didn't allow himself to think about destroying the Spiral, only about somehow subduing it. However, in all this, he forgot about an important difference: Judeau possessed the power to control people, and he no longer did. If the Professor had still been the leader of the Organization, Rassimov would still have been a spy in the Organization, and the Spiral might never have been exposed. Or it would have happened in a different way.

During this time, Wilder not only underwent internal changes but also external ones. He was more muscular, and his hair was cut short.

"Getting to the point: I'm assigning you to infiltrate the Spiral. If you agree, after your service, you don't have to come back here. And if you want, you can return to being the leader of the Organization" Grier said.

"You've piqued my interest. Go on" Wilder replied.

"...I'm entrusting you with my people" Grier said.

"I'm very glad I won't have to kill such talented and handsome devils" the woman touched one of the guards on the cheek. "According to our agreement: tell me what you currently lack, and I'll take care of it for you" she continued.