A few moments later, a tall figure in a dark blue coat down to the ground appeared in the passage, with a pale, wrinkled face and a terrible distorted smile, with his hands clasped behind his back, the figure approached the hall with lazy steps.

Kiyeri's heart froze and he gasped, next to him he heard Ashiya, fists clenched, teeth gritted, he roared, "Zeni, you fucking bastard!"

Kiyeri grabbed Ashiya's hand and, after taking a few calming breaths, he spoke, "Don't get hot." Ashiya's fist in Kiyeri's hand loosened a little.

"You have some balls showing up here. And not alone at that," Zarine said arrogantly.

Zeni shook his head, "What inappropriate words for such a delicate lady."

The lady in question only let out a light “Hmmt” and instantly formed a ball of lightning in her palm setting it towards Zeni, but the lightning was immediately blocked by the wooden club wrapped in green leaves in Dali's hands.

"And of course, I'm not alone," Zeni mockingly noted, as two more white figures appeared next to him.

"HA!” Zarine raised her chin, “Do you really think you'll get out of here alive? You can’t be expecting a few yellow-feathered birds by your side can scare, or kill me!"

"Scare? Kill?" Zeni's ear-splitting laughter began to echo throughout the hall, “You have no idea what's going on! I came to TAKE"

His words made Kiyeri shiver, did Zeni mean to take them? Or free those two? But it was obvious, so what was going on? And how did they end up here? Although there were more questions in Kiyeri's mind than answers, there was no time to think.

When Zeni gave the command, Dali rushed to attack Zarine, and Ruki took Ashiya.

As Zeni slowly walked towards Kiyeri with that twisted smile, pulling daggers from his belt. Kiyeri unexpectedly drew his own and attacked first. After exchanging blows and slashes several times, Zeni sent him away with a powerful kick. Both of them could no longer use a single spell but they were raised for delicate missions for the kingdom that required nothing but a knife as weapon.

Zeni was much older and more experienced, not to mention a former teacher. His technique was impeccable, so he had a slight advantage. Kiyeri intended to level the score with youthful agility and charged again.

While the two of them spun around, crossing weapons, punching and kicking like in a dance, Kiyeri wasn't worried about his companions at all. As Zarine had said, Dali and Ruki were just yellowbirds compared to her and Ashiya. While Dali's Sigil of life and the club raised from his mana were quite resistant to lightning, his opponent was a Bearer, a decade older than him and a ruler, so his chances were slim.

On the other side was the even younger Ruki, and while she had excellent control over her energy and her water barrier was effective against fire, she had no chance of hurting Ashiya. They’d needed an army to bring him down once. Kiyeri hoped Ruki remembered that. He could neutralize her with his bare hands. Not to mention that Dali and Ruki were both archers, so in a close duel they had no chance, they could only rely on spells.

Kiyeri couldn't understand why Zeni decided to attack when they had such a clear advantage, but then Ashiya's voice reached his ears, "Kiye, something's wrong!"

Kiyeri exchanged blows with Zeni a few more times and when he found a chance to retreat, he jumped back a few big leaps, stopping to look around, and became confused.

Ashiya threw fireballs at Ruki, constantly looking at the others, trying to keep the fire strong enough to attack, but not letting it spread and accidentally injure others. It was difficult to fight like this in a room full of people and Ashiya's complicated face showed it perfectly. Moreover, that fire was nothing compared to Ruki's water barrier from which she relentlessly shot coin-sized water bullets at Ashiya.

He was already injured. His left arm was perforated by bullets, and his right leg clearly couldn't support full weight as he moved.

Zeni didn't let Kiyeri stare for long and had already waved his dagger in front of his nose, aiming it at eyes, but Kiyeri reacted quickly and stepped back, allowing the dagger to cut off only a strand of hair.

As they clashed again, Kiyeri found a moment and, pulling the throwing dagger from his belt, launched it at Ruki, testing his theory. As he had suspected, the water barrier was so powerful that the dagger simply bounced off, not only that, it ricocheted towards Ashiya.

Although the dagger that bounced off wasn't dangerous to him, Ashiya couldn't help but comment, "Seriously?"

As much as Kiyeri wanted to, there was no time to laugh, but then he had an idea. He put his daggers back in their sheaths and stood in a fighting stance with his fists raised. Zeni only raised an eyebrow. After dodging a few stabs and a few cuts, with Zeni's next attempt to stab him, Kiyeri gave in.

Avoiding the dagger's impact on the throat, he adjusted so that it would go into his shoulder and deftly grabbed Zeni's wrist with one hand, and his face with his other hand, the only parts of Zeni not covered by clothes. Suddenly Zeni's whole body tensed and began to convulse, his arms fell, his legs could no longer support his weight and he half collapsed, supported only by Kiyeri’s hands, which had put five fingers around his face until it turned white, and then with one swing, Kiyeri slammed that head into the ground.

Zeni shook, foamed, and convulsed as Kiyeri drained his mana, while healing the wound in his shoulder and watching the others.

Although Ashiya was holding on pretty well, his injured arm and leg were giving him problems. "How did you miss that?!" Kiyeri scolded him, but looking the other way, the scene was even stranger.

Zarine struggled to move, dodging Dali's club blows, her entire body covered in small cuts through her clothes, which were stained red with blood. She charged and defended herself by sending small flashes of lightning towards Dali, but they were only enough to occupy him. She couldn’t use anything stronger here.

"They have too much power! Why do these two have so much power?!" Ashiya shouted.

"I noticed.” Zarine replied angrily. “Go away, NOW”

Ashiya and Kiyeri immediately understood the idea. While Ashiya was slowly leading the fight towards the window between all the water and fireballs, Kiyeri broke Zeni's spine at the waist with one sudden knee strike, then crushed the elbows so that he would not be able to move at all. Zeni was needed to get answers, Kiyeri couldn't leave him, and such injuries couldn't heal quickly.

Taking Zeni under his arm, Kiyeri was already rushing to Ashiya's aid so that the two of them could pull one on Ruki on and escape through the window before Zarine cooked the entire building, but suddenly he heard a loud thud and a hiccup behind him. As soon as they turned their heads, they didn't even understand how this could be. Zarine, with her back against the wall, was on the ground, half-sitting, coughing up blood. Dali was standing just a step away from her, with an extremely cold face.

Kiyeri and Ashiya were so stunned that they didn't even notice that Ruki had stopped attacking them.

Dali slowly leaned towards Zarine, reaching out his hand. Frightened Kiyeri let go of the unconscious Zeni, who fell to the floor like a broken doll and jumped from place to intervene, but immediately froze again with even wider eyes.

Dali didn't try to finish off Zarine, he HEALED her. Very little, just enough for her to stop coughing up blood.

Finally, Kiyeri realized.

None of the royal children had tried to stop the journey south for even a second. There was no commotion when they were locked up. Zeni had already disappeared into thin air some time ago and the top-secret information had somehow ended up in the hands of the Moon kingdom. From outside, it was clear that something was going on in the palace, but Mia and Sonanta never returned. These three, being in enemy territory, came with such great confidence. Zeni attacked Kiyeri very seriously, so he hadn’t noticed right away. But why hold back if Kiyeri was immortal? Kiyeri is not the target – others are.

"They are not just powerful..." Kiyeri said quietly, "They have much more, but they suppress their powers because they are trying to take us alive."