In dawn, Ciel and Kou are finally on their way. They carry another backpack. While they are about to leave the boundaries of the clan, no one is there to tell them goodbye. Being certain the clan would be in good hands considering Aria was the heir, Ciel can comfortably leave. Not that he cared...
"Could they not give us a horse or something?"
"Good luck trying to convince old man."
"Isn't this mission like pretty important though?"
"Let's just go..."
So they did, leaving the borders with their stuff. They would walk for hours and hours without end, while making conversations and discussing where they would go.
"So, where actually are we going?" Ciel wipes the sweat off his face before responding. "Well, to start with; we'll first have to pass through a few cliffs and mountains. Our first destination lies inside a mountain. While the second destination is the Erinyes Mountain."
"Erinyes? What's that?"
"Well, Erinyes specifically are three chthonic goddesses of vengeance in Greek Myths. But the mountain? That's one of the bigger mountains in the world."
"So it's name is based on Greek Myhtologies." Ciel nods in confirmation. While they keep walking, they pass by a river and stop there to fill up on their waters and maybe find something to eat.
The sun shines above them, visible through the trees and their leaves. Kou drinks from the river and fills up, Ciel looking for an easy animal to hunt and cook. A few deers, rabbits and such.
"Kou, why don't you go around to find some fruits or vegetables?"
"Why do I always collect the veggies? Why don't you do it now?"
"Can you hunt a deer, if I may ask so? I thought so too. Now get to working, dumbass."
"Hey! I can always catch fishes!"
"Fine! You want to catch fish, then do so!"
Ciel sighs and starts walking to cross the river. But right in front of them, they see a man about the same height as Ciel. He has dark red hair and tanned skin, he seems to be wearing a shirt with fire designs.
"Hey, who are you?" Ciel calls out. He isn't answered. The man sets his eyes on Kou, observing him from afar. He quickly runs towards them and crosses the river, folding his map and putting it in his pocket.
He gets right in front of Kou, holding him by the collar.
"Who are you?"
"Me...? I...-"
"Answer me already." Kou hesitates a bit, as the man seems pretty threatening. Ciel walks up to him and grabs him by the shoulder.
"Dude, have you ever heard of being polite?" Ciel asks. But he is immediately met with violence, as the man delivers a right hook to his face. Ciel stumbles backwards, his hand on the river. He rubs his nose and takes out the band aid on it.
"What the hell?!" He gets up, ready to face him.
"Stay back. I'm not talking to you, narrow-minded."
He turns back to Kou, as Kou gets up as well. They stand right in front of each other, they look a lot like each other, except for their hair colors especially.
"I'm Kou. Kou Ogawagi. That right there is my narrow-minded friend, Ciel Voldrald." Kou grins.
The man thinks for a few second. "Ogawagi... and Voldrald. What a coincidence..."
"What is it? I mean, I guess it is weird seeing an Ogawagi and a Voldrald together."
"No, it's not that. I just have this massive urge to... just... kill you both."
Ciel, quickly pulls Kou backwards by the shoulder as the man rushes forward to blast his face with a wave of flames. The flames burn through a tree.
He quickly follows up, kicking Kou in the face and pushing Ciel and Kou apart. Then, he heel palms Ciel in the stomach, a surge of flames go out of his hand and through the back of Ciel in agony, burning him.
Kou, instantly springs into action and creates a staff out of ice. He swings the staff towards the man, but the staff also twists around and comes down on him like a whip.
Ciel, taking advantage of the opportunity created by Kou, holds the man by the shoulder and presses forward. He creates winds out his hands and pushes him back, hurtling towards a tree that comes down with the impact of him crashing down on it.
"Damn it, these were a new pair..." Ciel grabs his stomach, marked with a circular shape of burn mark. He casts a water spell on his stomach and freezes it over, creating a small layer of ice on his stomach.
The man comes out of the dirt and broken pieces of wood. He starts walking back towards the two of them, his expression filled with anger as it seems.
"Why are you doing this?" Kou yells as he creates another ice staff, ready to face off against him.
"You see..." He begins. Cracking his knuckles, observing them. "I'm sure you've heard of the Prometheus clan. I come from there, my name would be Teru. It's just too good of an opportunity to pass up on, killing you two."
"The Prometheus clan?! You're like the heir, right?"
"Yes. How do you know that?"
"I mean, I just had a feeling."
"Well, doesn't matter. I hope you've got enough information and context for me to continue killing you two again?"
Ciel stretches out his legs, ready to fight back. "Oh, yeah. Go on, kill us. Two on one doesn't seem fair, though."
"Worry not, I'll have both your heads in short amount of time."
Ciel, smirks at the quick-witted response out of Teru, enjoying their back and forth.
Teru rushes forward without waiting another second. The flames underneath his feet boost him as he moves, while leaving trails of fire behind him. He engulfs his fist in his flames and goes into punch Ciel, but Ciel doesn't flinch.
Teru is interrupted by Kou's ice staff pressing against his chest, hard. Kou moves swiftly as well, twisting his staff around right after the first hit to deliver a back handed strike on Teru's face. He then creates a block of ice under Teru's feet.
The ice moves upwards, connecting with Teru's chin. Or that's what Kou planned. Teru avoids the ice block right after the staff. He creates wave of flames towards Kou, but his flames are interrupted with Ciel's own flames. The two flames clash with each other.
To overcome Teru's own flames, Ciel empowers his flames with dark magic, the flames instantly switch colors. The newly empowered dark flames overthrow Teru's regular ones and send him backwards. In order to not burn, Teru hides behind a rock, crouching down.
"Oh, I'm so gonna pay you back. Just you wait." Ciel sends himself upwards with a circular motion of wind underneath himself. He comes back down to the earth with a rain of dark fire above him, the fire melts the rock Teru hides behind and burns through him in his shoulder and chest.
While Teru struggles with that, out of nowhere, Kou shows up right beside Teru. His left arm is covered in a thick layer of ice, as his left hook connects with Teru's face, launching him backwards.
"So that's how you want to play it, huh? I'll show you what real firepower looks like!"
With an incredible surge of mana, Teru creates tidal waves out of flames, big enough to attack both Kou and Ciel at the same time, burning though the forest.
Kou acts fast and creates a wall of ice in front of himself. But Ciel isn't that lucky. All he can do is tuck into a ball shape and coat his entire body with his mana.
The flames push Ciel backwards in the air, as he crashes down on a burning tree. Kou's wall is thick enough to withstand the flames without melting. Kou looks back, seeing Ciel on the ground, covering his body.
He then gets out from behind the wall and runs towards Teru. He creates a sword out of ice and thrusts it towards Teru, on his neck. Teru has to stop the flames in order to move out of the way before Kou manages to stab him.
Teru creates a pillar of flame right under Kou before moving out the way. Kou can barely react and creates thin layers of ice around his body, most unfinished, as he takes in the strike.
Teru follows up with a roundhouse kick to Kou's face, his feet engulfed in flames. Kou takes the kick but he isn't phased by it. He creates rock-hard ice layers around both his hands while his burn wounds are healing on their own with the ice appearing on his body naturally. He goes in to punch Teru with a left hook.
However, Teru quickly engulfs his hands in flames and grabs Kou's hand. Teru's flames gets wilder, he tries to melt Kou's ice, but he can't even melt the surface. At the same time, Kou creates bigger layers of ice on his hands, the ice growing out to Teru's hands. But the ice stops growing before it can reach Teru.
Their hands are locked in place as well, they're unable to move their own limbs or do anything else to fight back. So, Teru tries to punch Kou in the face with his free hand. But this time, Kou grabs Teru's hand. Now, both their hands are locked, almost like a Chinese finger trap.
"What the hell... let go!"
"Me? You let go, you cold freak!"
"Who are you calling a freak?!"
Kou's entire body starts to get covered in thick ice crystallines. He grows out his ice, trying to reach Teru. Teru's flames also get stronger. But none of them can actually do anything to each other. Kou kicks Teru in the shins, so he falls down. But as Teru falls down, since their hands are tied together, both of them fall to the ground sideways.
"Why you...?!"
"Ciel! Where are you? Ciel!!"
Ciel drags himself to them, his whole body covered in shallow burn marks. "Damn you... Hey, what happened to you two?"
"I don't know! Just help me, get me away from this weirdo!"
"Calm down, calm down." Ciel kneels before them, he looks at Teru's flames and drags his hands along the surfaces of Kou's ice. Then, he withdraws his hand with a sudden realization.
"Wait, you guys are synced. How did you manage to do that?"
"Synced? What are you talking about?" All of them were confused by the situation.
"Oh, right, that's not common knowledge. Synchronization is when two identical, or similar, mana systems collide together. Basically, both of your mana systems are pretty damn similar, the collision of your magic caused you to be tied together like this... But how?"
"So, this is just a coincidence then? How do we get out?"
"It's not just a coincidence. Getting synced rarely happens with even the closest of relatives, I've never synced with either my sister or father ever once in my twenty two year life."
"Can you shut up about your life? Just get me out, and I'll consider letting you two go."
"Oh, you don't have a choice, Teru. You're not just going to let us go, you're going to be kind as well!" Kou stares into Teru's eyes. Teru tries to headbutt him out of anger, but instantly regrets headbutting Kou's ice-covered head.
"This is really complicated... I don't know how to get you guys unstuck." Ciel says, tapping his chin while thinking.
"Wait, are you serious? I'm gonna be stuck with this flaming cheese head my whole life?! Oh, I should have listened to mom..."
"No, don't worry. You're not gonna be stuck your whole life, but probably the whole afternoon."
Ciel breaks a small ice pick out of Kou's arm and sinks it deep on his finger, drawing blood. He then starts drawing a runic seal on Kou's arm with his blood.
"Hey, wildfire. Won't you turn off your flames so I can try getting you out?"
"You can try getting me out? You don't know what you're doing, do you?"
"I'm doing my best here. So you need to co-operate a little bit."
Teru lets out a sigh as his flames burn out in seconds. Ciel, then draws the identical runic seal on Teru's arm. After drawing the seal, Ciel picks up a branch from a tree and draws another seal on the ground between Teru and Kou.
"Let's hope this works." Ciel, presses his palms together and a purple light covers the forest. After the light is gone, Kou's ice melts and the seal on Teru's arm seems to be burned into his skin now.
"Hey, what the hell?! We're not free?"
"Like I said, I'm doing my best here." Kou interrupts. "What did you even try to do?"
"I tried to create a small barrier between you two with the seals. My plan was to crush the barrier and separate you two. But it didn't work, obviously. And worse, the seal on his arm burned away."
"Yeah, thanks, asshole."
"There's another way, but I don't know enough soul-magic to confidently attempt it."
"What even is soul-magic?"
"It's the type of magic the Voldrald clan specializes on. I didn't have a father to teach me enough about it. I only know how to observe souls, not separate them. And even if I did know how, through my observations, you two aren't bound together by your souls. It's a physical chain that keeps you two together."
"So how the hell are we gonna get unstuck?! Stop wasting time and find an actual solution!" Teru yells angrily.
Ciel doesn't take it though, and he immediately punches Teru in the face. "Hey, I still got burn marks all over my body because of your stupid flames! So I'd behave if I were you."
"Ciel, he is kind of right though. Can you hurry?"
Ciel sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He then snaps his fingers, his eyes flashing with a newfound idea.
"How didn't I think of this before? Okay, I have an idea. This is gonna tire both of you out. But it probably is going to work, only if you push yourselves to the edge."
"Stop stalling, tell me."
"So how this works is, you two will have to use every ounce of excess mana you have. Kou will create a mountain of ice while you will create a giant wildfire. I'll try to contain it, but don't stop. Whatever you do, do not stop."
"How is that gonna solve it?"
"How, you say. So how this works is you two will create 'magic friction', as I like to call it, but in reality, you just cast a large spell. The spell destabilizes and collapses when you manage to use all of your mana. If you exhaust your mana structure enough with the friction, they'll no longer be tied to each other. It will be exhausting and possibly painful, but that's the only way I know how. Ready?"
"Ready when you are, Ogawagi filth."
"I'm holding back the urge to kill you right here and now."
Ciel steps back and grabs the same branch. He draws another runic seal and presses his hands together. He then starts casting a rock spell. A giant dome of rock and earth starts to rise out to the sky, containing both Kou and Teru in a large space.
"Now! Do it now!" Ciel yells right before the dome closes. The runic seal increases the potency of his dark magic, which he uses to empower the rock dome. Both Kou and Teru start giving their entire mana source into casting large ice and fire spells. They push themselves to their absolute edge, exhausted, until their mana source is depleted and until the only amount of mana left in them is the one inside their organs.
As this happens, a large mana explosion occurs. Pushing both Kou and Teru away, as they launch towards the walls of the dome. The dome successfully contains the explosion inside. But Kou and Teru are thrown through the walls of the dome, both landing hard on the ground.
Ciel smirks. "I can't believe it actually worked!" The rock dome starts to fall apart, merging with the earth they stand on. Ciel runs towards Kou's body. He slaps Kou in the face a couple times to wake him up.
"Did it work?"
"What do you think, brain freeze?"
"So it worked. Thanks."
"It barely worked, really. I mean, you casted a mountain of ice that was not stable from the moment it was casted, it collapsed, and the whiplash threw both of you through a thick rock. You could have even died."
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"That's the fun part, isn't it? Now get up, let's check up on the wildfire over there."
Teru, struggles to get up. he holds his arms in agony. "You... You had us collapse our spells, didn't you?"
Ciel smirks. "Yes. Your mana structure is probably damaged right now. Kou is fine though. And your mana is drained, while I'm still ready to fight. You better check up on your mana structure, so I suggest you crawl back to wherever you burned out of."
Teru grits his teeth. He wants to blast Ciel's entire face off, but he knows he can't. Not yet.
"Fine, I'll let you go now. But we'll meet again, I'm sure."
Teru starts to leave into the forest. Ciel yells behind him. "Yeah, piss off you burning rabbit!" As Kou and Ciel laugh at each other.
"Is it really a good idea to just let him go?"
"It's not a good idea to let him go. I feel like he might be involved somehow, with the Ogawagi Invasion."
"Then why are we just letting him leave?"
"For starters, I'm tired. But really, I can track him. The runic seal that burned into his skin? That wasn't meant to do anything. It was just a manual seal that'll alert me, wherever he is, whenever I want to."
"So you placed a tracking chip on him, like in the movies?"
"Exactly like in the movies. If he is somehow involved, he won't be able to get the drop on us anytime soon. Unless he loses his hand or something."