The Villain's Story

?Following her request to go down, both of them started to descend at a slow pace, Kazikato had his eyes active to detect any unseen dangers and they reached the ground.

The blue grass was everywhere, and no trees were in sight, however, some parts of the ground seemed as if they had been uprooted. Dirt was everywhere, and some strange pieces of metal.

Kazikato dropped down first and picked the metal pieces, they were in the form of a needle, which was as thick as a finger and as big as the forearm.

There were multiple of these needles all around the dirt piles, but that was not the thing that Sabrina wanted them to come down for.

Alan reached the ground and let her down, he also looked towards the 'pillar of fire' that was erupting from a crack on the ground.

To say it was a crack was a bit of an understatement, it looked like the opening to a ravine, only that it was lit by blue fire.

But the blue fire...was not fire. Because of the altitude they had assumed it was. Alan asked Kazikato why he didn't tell them about it, but he said he wasn't paying attention there

"Mana."

Sabrina pointed out, Kazikato and Alan realized it much sooner, they were simply shocked at it's strange behavior and the density of it.

The mana that was released like the breath of a dragon from the earth was incredibly dense, like a wall. Kazikato tried to push his hand through, but was met with great resistance.

"I can see something down there..."

However, although one could not pass through it, they could see through it. Sabrina enhanced her vision with her mana but still couldn't accurately see what lied beyond the vast sea of mana.

"Kazikato?"

"Whatever it is, it's glowing."

Kazikato said, piercing through the sea of mana with his eyes. But his description wasn't exactly appealing.

"Are your eyes not showing you their description?"

Alan asked him, confused. Dragon eyes should give him a complete description of whatever was down there, even if this sea of mana was obstructing it.

"I can't...I don't know why but I am unable to access their information."

'Sigh...'

Alan sighed inwardly, and activated his own eyes after Sabrina looked at him with hopeful eyes, She had already regarded Kazikato as useless. The poor boy was unaware of this and tried his best to peer into the wall.

"Minerals...most likely."

Alan commented, facing the same difficulty as Kazikato, however he could see the surrounding fine and the texture of the glowing objects suggested they were minerals, or ore.

No matter how hard he tried or how much mana he used, he couldn't access their information as well.

"We travelled quite a bit."

Whilst the two of them were trying to bypass the surge of mana, Sabrina called Maxwell with the help of an artifact, and informed him of their discovery.

Maxwell informed them that the location had been marked, and teams would be sent to check on it later with more equipment, but that was something that would happen later. They had travelled hundreds of miles away from the portal. The main base was still being set up, so it would take a lot of time for them to be able to explore here. She ended the call and looked at the two of them, Kazikato was still trying to jump into the mana, whilst Alan was simply staring at the large mountains.

'It's cold.'

She said inwardly, almost shivering. The suits they wore underneath their armor provided protection to all temperatures and were suites for extreme changes, but Sabrina felt as if the suit was apparently useless.

This wasn't right. They were produced by a company her family owned... Furthermore, she didn't feel cold but felt cold at the same time. It was quite hard to grasp.

As if her body was being protected by the suit, but something else wasn't.

"Those mountains... "

She didn't hear Alan's muttering, and began to wonder why they hadn't encountered any sort of life except for plants.

Eventually, after failing to find what the glowing objects beneath the manager were, they traveled forward.

Sabrina wanted to go back, but Alan was insisting that they go a little bit further. She allowed it, but she wanted go go back before it got too cold.

Kazikato had an abundance of Mana to protect himself from the cold, whilst Alan was immune to it due to his affinity.

She however, wasn't. She could use her Mana to protect herself or Alan could conjure a shield around her. But she had a gut feeling that going further would spell disaster.

She was carried by Alan once again and they departed, the mountains were farther than they had anticipated, as they got closer and closer, they were getting farther and farther.

It wasn't just her that was feeling this, but the rest of the party was as well. Alan and Kazikato's senses were constantly being messed with. Ariel had also stopped responding to Kazikato as well.

She was always free...This led to Alan thinking the silence of his guardian dragons was related to this planet, and not their own personal affairs.

"Hold on tight."

Alan said, and sped up, his mana covered his wings and the bloodline of the phoenix enhanced his speed as well. He blitzed through the illusion cast forth by the mountain range. They had flown for so long but the close mountain range was still the same distance ahead?

Bullshit.

Alan had enough of it and intended to brute force his way through the illusion that was cast, He told everyone to be ready. He had a feeling that they were trapped here, and retreating would be of no use.

"Hey!"

Sabrina called out, wanting to tell him to wait but he didn't listen.

His speed increased, he cast a shield around himself and her, and with the aid of mana he blitzed forth.

Kazikato struggled to keep up with Alan, who had already broken the sound barrier.

But, he didn't need too. The illusion that was cast was broken and Kazikato collided with a blanket of snow. Alan's figure stopped and the force blew out all the snow.

"Are you crazy?!"

Sabrina yelled at him, her hair a mess, But Alan didn't respond to her. She could see his eyes glowing brightly, blood leaking from them as well. He was looking at something.

She looked up, and the only thing she could see was a huge mountain. She looked at Kazikato to find his eyes glowing as well.

She quietened down, and waited for them to answer, realizing that whatever it was that their eyes were showing them, it was serious.