The woman in the middle clicked her tongue slowly as she walked forward. Instinctively, Petra placed herself in front of Adrien and lowered herself down to a stance. She flexed her fingers a little bit, allowing the magic in her veins to flow freely to the tips of her fingers. Next to her, Peter readied a stance as well and summoned a bottle of potion in his hand.

"What do we have here?" The woman raised a brow and sneered. "Three little mice, trapped in a snowy cage."

The people with her laughed, and it took a lot of willpower for Petra to not snap her fingers and just kill them all on the spot. Her eyes flicked to the visible portions of their faces, then to the insignia on their chests.

It made her furrow her brows and scowl. That symbol... she swore that she destroyed that symbol and anything related to it years ago. And yet, there it was, staring back at her face as if it was smiling at her.

Her train of thoughts, however, was interrupted when Adrien placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it three taps. Her ears perked up a little, and she had almost turned her head to him. Before she could, she felt something pull her head back and stop in her tracks.

"I apologize if you see Kytzlanna as a cage," Adrien began as he circled his finger, making small sparks of magic fall. "But for us, Kytzlanna is just another playground where we can do whatever we want. After all, we were the ones who claimed victory during the Battle in Kytzlanna."

The people stopped laughing, and even the woman stopped in her tracks. Petra would have smiled, but there was something about the woman that felt... off for her. She looked young, probably someone around in her late teens or early twenties. Her stature was thin, too. Too thin, in fact. Almost like she didn't have any training in combat. Even Adrien had some build to him, and that was saying something.

The woman scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I guess that's what we should expect from... hmm, what are you guys again? Elves? Humans? Artificial beings?"

Petra gritted her teeth. Before she could do anything irrational, she took a deep breath and smiled. "Super soldiers shall suffice. As far as I'm aware, I don't think that there's a name for us."

"Proud, are we?" The woman laughed again and took a step back. "As I was saying, I guess we should expect none from super soldiers such as yourselves. The only thing in your mind is nothing but murder and violence."

"Not true." A smile formed on Adrien's face, and the mere sight of it sent shivers down Petra's spine. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the woman directly in her eyes. "Some of us think of strategies and plans, too. Not just murder and violence."

"Oh really now?"

"Yes, really." He cleared his throat and placed a hand behind Petra's back, shoving her forward a bit. Before she could even ask, he already started talking again. "Where are my manners? My name is Adrien, Commander of the Tactics Brigade. These two with me"--he grabbed Peter by the shoulder and lightly pushed him forward--"are the super soldier twins Peter and Petra, one is a commander of the Potions Brigade, and the other a commander of the Magi Brigade. It's an honor to meet you."

Petra furrowed her brows, but the small glance Adrien gave her was enough to know that he wanted her to stay quiet. There was another gleam in his eyes, one that was all too familiar for her. He was thinking. And by the looks of it, he was thinking of a plan on the spot.

It made a knot form in her stomach, and she took a gulp.

The best she can do now was follow Adrien's lead.

Clearing her throat, she stood tall and patted her cloak and coat. "Adrien's right. Sincerest apologies. I don't think our first meeting should involve us trying to kill each other already. I believe we didn't get to know your name."

The woman paused, her eyes flicking to the three of them before stopping at Adrien. For a moment, her eyes flicked downwards, but then she took a deep breath and stared back at them. Petra swore she saw something in her eyes, maybe like a flash of light or fire, but it was gone the moment she looked again.

"You may call me Allaine," she replied. "I... I apologize, but I don't think I'm allowed to state why we're here. The same reason you can't disclose why you're here."

Adrien chuckled. "I'm aware that we may not be able to exchange information back and forth. However, I do have a question, and I hope you'll be able to answer it."

"And what is that?"

"You wouldn't happen to know where General Alejandro lives, don't you?"

That was the last straw. Petra felt her heart leap out of her chest as she slowly turned her head to Adrien. How she wished she actually thought of analyzing Adrien's expressions before. It would have been easy to tell what he was feeling rather than say his face was blank and neutral.

She grabbed him by his shoulder and pushed him down to her height. "What are you doing?" she whispered, hoping that the howling winds were enough to muffle her voice. "Are you crazy? Adi, what do you think you're gaining by telling them where we're going?"

Adrien's eyes narrowed before turning to her. "You know who they are, don't you, Defakt?"

"I..." Her grip on his clothes loosened as she nodded. "Of course. Why?"

"Make sure you get out of Kytzlanna alive. I need you both alive, you hear me?"

Before she could even ask, Adrien took a step backwards. Petra didn't even get a chance to blink when his body vanished into thin air, leaving nothing but a whisper of wind.

Petra blinked a few times and even looked down on the snow. She hoped to see Adrien's footprints, or maybe even shadow, still somewhat visible on the snowy ground. But there was no sign of him being there in the first place. He really did turn into the wind and vanish.

A groan left her lips as she resummoned her spellbook and turned to the people around her. Oh what she would do to learn an element embodiment spell.

"S- So." She nervously laughed and placed her free hand on her nape. "How's everyone doing? Our friend kinda poofed there, but I'm sure there's something we can do."

The woman, Allaine, still had her eyes glued to where Adrien previously stood. She adjusted her mask and covered her face again. Though this time, Petra managed to see something under her mask. It looked like a darker portion of her skin, maybe a scar. She was just not sure how large it was.

After shaking her head, Allaine turned to them and furrowed her brows. "Where is he? Where did that soldier go? What did he tell you and why do you want to know about General Alejandro?"

Petra forced a smile on her face as she walked forwards. "Now, now. I don't see why we should all go back to ripping each other apart. I'm sure there's--"

As expected, Allaine didn't even give her a chance to finish her sentence. Petra stretched her arm to the right, making her teleport and dodging the punch that was meant to hit her face. Before she could fall down, she stretched her arm once again, landing just behind Allaine, and kicked her feet. Allaine shrieked, and she fell down in the snow.

It was also when the other people with her finally made their move.

She cracked her knuckles and clicked her tongue. "There goes an easy escape to Nuryyn."

"Look on the bright side." Peter snapped his fingers, making more of his potions appear in his palms. "You get to kill Nuryynians again."

A smile managed to form on her face, and she couldn't help but laugh. "I guess that does help."

Her brother threw the potions on the ground. One of them exploded, turning into a small haze that covered every corner Petra could see. The other one released a loud crash of thunder.

Petra wasted no time in dashing forward, allowing lightning to infuse her arm. It felt like time slowed when her hand made contact with one of the Nuryynian's chests. The tips of her fingers sparked, before a large blast of lightning followed. Black and white filled her vision as the lightning filled the empty fields.

Her ears twitched when she heard footprints behind her. Like before, Petra stretched her arm and teleported just right above where she heard the noise. When she saw another Nuryynian below, she jumped down and pressed two fingers on their forehead.

"Aki'kulo."

A symbol flashed in their forehead before engraving itself in their forehead. Once the symbol faded, Petra released the Nuryynian and looked around.

Everything was still a thick haze, and thunder would still roar every now and then. Still, if she would stop and just listen, she could hear more potions being thrown on the ground with the mix of a sword clashing against one another.

If she would call Peter, would he hear her? No, she wasn't worried about that. If she could hear where her brother was, she was certain that she could hear her somehow. What she worried about was that if the humans would hear her as well. How could she make her voice loud enough for Peter to hear but soft to not let the others know?

"Gah!" She grabbed her hair and brushed it down. "We're running out of time. Peter, where are you!"

The clashing didn't stop, but Petra could hear another round of footsteps. They were slow, almost as if the person walking was injured and was just dragging their leg.

Allaine. She managed to get up.

Petra looked around once again before cupping her mouth. "Idei'na! Where are you? We have to leave! We gotta go, now!"

She wasn't sure if her ears were messing with her or not, but the clashing stopped. Instead, the silence that greeted her was the soft howling of the winds. Petra turned around a couple of times and even stepped forward. Was Peter gone already? Did he leave? Did the Nuryynians kill him? Or--

A scream left her lips when a hand had grabbed her from nowhere. For a brief moment, Petra nearly squirmed away and shot whoever touched her on sight. But it didn't take long for them to escape the fog and stand outside the cold, fresh, windy snow.

Peter placed a hand on his chest and another on his thighs as he sat down. "I'm... so tired... of fighting people at... at the same time..."

Petra dusted her clothes before turning to her brother. "Are you okay? You look a bit tired there."

"I'm a bit tired, but..." He slowly stood up and sighed, fog forming in front of his face. "I can just brew a quick elixir later and I'm sure I'll be fine in a snap."

"Good."

She turned around and faced the haze behind them. It looked a little larger than she expected, as it almost covered the portion of Kytzlanna that they walked. If Peter was able to brew an entire haze inside a small bottle, then potion making was probably not as bad as she thought.

"Let's get out of here."

Peter nodded. "Yeah, let's."

Before anything else could happen, Petra darted out of their former battleground. She knew Kytzlanna like the back of her hand, and she knew where Adrien would be waiting. She just hoped that this decision of theirs was worth it.

There was no turning back now that they had stepped foot in Nuryynian lands.