"What took you so long??" Peril spoke, the tinge of malice still fresh in her voice.
"Give her back." Zed demanded. The calm from his voice gone, it let out a chill in the air, only felt by the enemy ahead of them.
"Sorry, I can't. My master won't like it if I do." She replied. The smug on her face creating more visible veins on Alloy's forehead.
"Who are you?? Who is this master??" He asked.
"I am Perilius Forla, the left hand to she who I can't name."
"What do you want with Zephro…" "I want nothing to do with this place. The master wished for this one," she said, looking down both on and at Ivy. Alloy's teeth began gritting, her patience running thinner by the words spoken.
"I do as she wishes. That is all."
"The Seventh Star Cross sword…" he inquired, looking at the beautiful and starry blade corrupted by an enemy's presence. "Was that something she wished as well??"
"This… this is a beauty I'll get to keep for myself if I'm lucky." She said, gripping the sword up to the shine of the moonlight.
"Give… Ivy… back…" Alloy demanded. Zed now completely sure her patience, however short, had burned out.
"It's not the master's wish."
"To hell with your master!!" Alloy said, a low angered growl accompanying her words.
"GIVE HER BACK!!" She demanded as she lunged at her with all she had.
*****
TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES EARLIER
While the royal guards were at the Zeron bridge, their distraction grew bigger as the people who set bets with Eliza were loosing, her included. She had bet on Lore arriving before Trogan, most believed due to her ideology of being able to turn the tides at any given moment, however, she didn't manage this time. The situation had come to a close when Eliza decided to head back to the palace and leave them back to their posts. She made quite a small distance when she felt an odd essence, one that didn't belong anywhere near Zephro, with her doubts in mind, a royal guard began running after her.
"Eliza-sama!!" He urged. She turned to see him, saying, "You can't bet on their return, if they're injured, it turns cruel."
"No… no… they are in trouble!! We received word from them but no one was at their post because we assumed two noble commanders wouldn't have an issue with a disturbance in the night forest!!" Those words confirmed her worries. She began running to the palace, the guard following behind her. The royal guards at the entrance wondered what was going on, seeing her run to them with someone behind her, they assumed something was wrong, but an even more wrong assumption was made. They opened the doors to the palace, allowing Eliza to enter but as the guard joined her, he was tackled straight to the ground, three different guards held their weapons on his neck with one question.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ELIZA-SAMA??!!"
"HUUUHHH??!!??!!" He shrieked, confused as to why they'd think he was hostile.
Eliza left them behind and found Naja running to the Western side of the palace. She joined behind her.
Meanwhile, Zed and Alloy had continued their sparring session for quite some time, their faces were still brimming with happiness over their exchanges. The clashes continued almost endlessly, the runes covering the entire room having to work overtime just to keep up with their damages to it. Another clash sent them both skidding in equal distances, which, for Alloy, was a big thing, she had gotten strong enough to equate whatever level of power Zed was using to fight her with."Seems I held back a bit too much," Zed said, spinning his staff around his fingers before holding it straight up.
"You did." Alloy said, panting due to her exhaustion. Droplets of sweat had began forming on her face, but she wasn't ready to end the spar.
Zed heard this and decided to step things up, the lightning drift that was only sparking on his hands began extending upward, to his shoulders, then, it shot to his entire body, covering him in a mirage of sparks colored blue. The sparks ignited as fast as they dimmed out, widening Alloy's eyes as she had never seen such a form on Zed before. In her shock, she saw a spark ignite on his shoulder. It flew before burning out, but as she glanced at it, Zed was already behind her.
"Can you keep up with this??" He asked, towering above her, still smiling. Alloy's smile faded quite a bit, mostly because she knew she didn't see anything except a spark go out, but also because this meant she wouldn't be able to touch him again, at least not in the near future. She was forced to a back flip to try regaining her balance as well as to find a way to attack someone she couldn't see. Again, a spark flared and he appeared behind her once again. Shocked, she was about to jump back when she felt a clear fist come in contact with her face, after feeling the ripple of the attack within her, the lightning-driven fist sent her flying across the longest distance in the room.
She had flown all the way to the entrance where suddenly, its runes and structure began shifting wide, it had opened. Zed's face immediately changed. Only the select few could interrupt him in that room, and on the other side, he knew who was there. Alloy flew through the entrance, passing both Eliza and Naja who missed since they didn't know what was flying. Right before she hit the other side, Zed had caught her, he reduced the speed she flew with with his own and moved her to Naja and Eliza where they got the message.In no time at all, they had gotten to the edge of the floating palace, right where Eliza was placing her bets. She sensed something else in that moment. "Ivy, Lore, Trogan… I can't sense them… they must've gone deeper into the forest."
"Then that's where we'll land." Zed said.
"Is Ivy okay??" Alloy asked.
"I don't know dear, I'm sorry." Just then, they saw the massive build up of Ivy's power, a power only they knew of. It only meant one thing, whatever was going on was bad. The guards at the gate panicked more and more since they thought they were at fault for not being able to answer their fellow knights' call for help. That, as well as the fact that Ivy's showcase of power was believed to be the enemy's since they didn't know what her drift was.
"They're in trouble, I don't need more reason to help them." Zed said.
"Let's go." Alloy said. Anger bubbling up inside her, nothing had ever forced Ivy to use her abilities to this extent before, abilities that she didn't like relying on. But the situation called for it, someone forced her to do it, and Alloy did not like it. Both her and Zed stepped out of the solid ground and onto the clouds, he held her close to him as the clouds around them began trembling. A circular shape of blue appeared from Zed's feet, it seemed to flow some energy to the both of them.
"Hold on." He said. Immediately, a surge of lightning sparked from beneath them, shooting both of them with insane speed into the dark clouds above the forest. In the sky, they moved too fast to see anything, but the stench of blood had filled the air. Ahead of them, Ivy's massive attacks had settled down and they could at least see that.
"Compose yourself when we land, we need answers just as much as we need to stop these enemies. Ivy is strong… but she may already be defeated… keep that in mind." He reminded her.
The words were helpful for a tactical situation, but her friend, someone she considered family, might not only be defeated, but dead. With this in mind, it fueled more than just her anger. Her bracelet's ebony had began fading… slowly… but surely.