It started at the Training Ground inside the Royal Castle of Lunarfall Kingdom..
Woosh!
A ball of fire flew towards one of the training dummies and hit it right on its chest, burning the whole structure, however there was no visible damage done to the dummy, and the fire soon disappeared along the wind.
"That was a nice shot, Princess Calea." A man covered in armor complimented Calea with a smile, his name is Arken, one of the knight, or guard in this castle, and Calea was the daugter of The King of Lunarfall, and also the one who had launched that fireball earlier using her magic.
"Thanks.." Calea said, appreciating Arken's words, "But that wasn't enough.."
Today is a particularly windy day, Calea's snowy white hairs swayed beautifully along the winds direction, her dress folds constantly changing with each of her movement creating an extra serenity to those who stares at her.
"You're right, it is still lacking in power." Arken replied, 'Princess Calea is still as beautiful as ever.'
He looked at the training dummy that was hit by Calea's magic and saw that her destructive power is still very much nonexistent, if it had hit an actual human, it would only cause them a minor burn that will be healed by tomorrow.
'She might be talented at magic, but fire element seems to be her weakness, it's quite to be expected, considering her control is leaning towards water element magic..' Arken thought, 'On the other hand...'
Clack!
Clack!
Looking to the side, moving away from Calea for a bit, there was another person training in the area, it was a boy who's practicing his swordmanship, his age was around 17, the boy swung his sword towards the dummy, hitting it multiple times rapidly, showing a significant skill that would be considered above average at that age.
Arken knew who that boy was, 'Prince Leoth's swordmanship is growing again, he hit that dummy on its waist and shoulder consecutively, as expected for one of the successor's candidate.' He thought.
"Yo! Leoth, Training again?" Someone suddenly called Prince Leoth from behind, Arken, Calea, and Leoth himself then turned around to see another boy walking towards Leoth, he had a pretty arrogant look on his face, and from the looks of it, he seems to be older than Leoth and Calea.
'Prince Valden!? So he decided to come aswell..' Arken thought, he furrowed his eyebrows as if there was something about Valden that he personally knew, 'Hmm, let's just observe for now, my job is to protect and monitor Prince Leoth and Princess Calea.'
Arken smiled again, this time his smile grows even bigger, he knew what was about to happen, and that excites him.
Valden approached Leoth with a smile, but it was no ordinary smile, its more like a rivalry smile with the two of them locking their eyes at eachother.
"Valden, what do you want?" Said Leoth, his expression grows serious.
"Hey, I just want to train with you, i heard you're at the training ground, so i thought that this might be the perfect opportunity." Valden replied, still keeping that cheeky smile on him.
"Is that so.."
Valden eventually arrived infront of Leoth, and he towered over Leoth with his height, for other people, they didn't saw anything unordinary, but for Valden and Leoth, they were fighting with their invisible aura, trying to dominate the other.
'Oho? Here they are, the two princes with their rivalry, the next thing they will say is...' Arken thought, keeping an eye to the two princes.
"You sure are confident huh, did you secretly train without my knowledge?" Leoth said.
"You talk alot for someone that couldn't use sword aura." Valden replied, sending another insult to Leoth.
Meanwhile, Arken who was standing beside Calea and watched the whole rivalry between Leoth and Valden, felt a touch on his back.
"Hm?" He said, turning his head around, he saw Calea who is a bit worried about the two princes.
"Are they going to duel again?" She said with a little frown, "Last time, didn't Leoth lose and got injured?"
Arken looked at Calea, he gave her a pat on the head and said, "Don't worry about it, Princess Calea, that's just how rivalry works, they will never give up no matter what we tell them— Prince Leoth will keep training until he beat Valden, and Valden will also keep training to prevent Leoth from beating him, when you look at it from a different perspective, they are essentially supporting eachother and keeps on becoming stronger."
"Is that so.. Agh! Stop doing that!" Calea replied, feeling a little embarrassed, "If that's the case, wouldn't it be better if i also have a rival? Someone that uses magic as good as i do.."
"Hmm, i guess you could try that." Arken said, his head lifted upwards trying to imagine what it would be like if Calea had a rival.
After that short conversation, Calea turned back to her training dummy, ignoring Arken and the two princes, she focused on channeling her mana to the magic spell that she imagined, this time it was a water cannon.
'This spell, It's not that strong, but what if...' Calea thought.
Arken noticed the commotion behind him as strong wind began to be conjured from Calea's magic circle, 'Hoh? Now she's getting serious.' He thought after seeing her being so focused.
Not long after, the magic circle infront of her activates and shot a terrifyingly fast water beam that hit the training dummy perfectly in the middle, however the water cannon that was being launched had a slight difference from usual, and it made Arken opened his eyes in awe.
BOOM!
'What?!, Did she just modified the spell on her head? She made the water cannon be focused to a small point for increased penetration, and when the spell hit the dummy, it explodes right inside of the dummy's body, completely destroying it!..' He thought, amazed by Calea's magic. "That was amazing, Princess Calea— When did you learn to modify spells, some of the mage squad in the kingdom couldn't even do it.."
"Uhh, well– I just thought about it, i guess.." Calea replied, not knowing how to explain it to Arken, "Huff, that spell drains a lot more mana than i thought"
"Do you want to end the training here? You've been training for an hour." Arken said, he positioned his hand behind Calea, just in case if she doesn't have the strength to keep her balance.
"Yeah, i can still walk, thanks for the company Arken." Calea said as she began to walk out of the training ground.
"Don't mind it Princess Calea, it is my duty to serve and protect you." Arken replied while bowing towards Calea.
CLACK!
CLACK!
"HAH! YOU'RE DONE HERE!" The voice of Prince Valden echoed throughout the training ground.
"STOP UNDERESTIMATING ME, WILL YOU!?" Leoth didn't want to be left behind, he also let out his fighting spirit.
"Huh?" Turning his head around, Arken saw Prince Leoth and Valden dueling in the middle of the training area, they were fighting with their wooden sword as if their life was on the line, 'Oh man! I forgot about them!' He thought, quickly approaching them and watched the fight at a appropriate distance, getting ready to stop them incase if it gets dangerous.
***
That Night...
The castle glows beautifully under the bright full moon, in this dark hours where creatures snore and the wind turns cold, a quiet princess was seen sleeping on her bed in the castle, that princess purposefully left her windows open so that the cold winds can graze her smooth skin softly, who is this princess if it wasn't Calea.
Although the night reigned over them, the atmosphere at the castle didn't change that much with how it usually is at daytime, that is because the castle is mostly consisted of guards and knights that were patroling the castle constantly, the guards were divided into two groups of who's responsible for the daytime shift and nighttime shift.
It's not strange to find that each of the Royal Family's room is guarded with skilled knights, they stood still infront of the entrance, keeping their focus high at all time, looking for anything unordinary in their vision and hearing.
However, while Calea was still sleeping soundly in her room, she never realized the huge shadow that is looming ontop of her, that shadow had a shape similar to that of an adult human, upon looking at it again, that shadow was actually someone wearing a thick cloak that covers all of their face.
"Here you are." Said the shadowed human, his voice sounded deep like a middle-aged man.
Without any notice or warning whatsoever, the shadowy man then snapped Calea's mouth shut with his hand, waking her up in the process.
"MFFHGHH!?"
Calea had a hard time understanding what was happening infront of her, her instinct forced her to scream, but the sound was blocked by the shadowy man's hand, her brain didn't have time to process anything as the man quickly strangled her neck until Calea fell unconscious, but before her lights goes out, Calea managed to kick one of the bed pillow and threw it to the desk, where its quiet thud and rustling sound can definitely be heard by the knights outside.
On the other side, the knights who were guarding Calea's room entrance heard the sound from the inside, "Hm? what's that noise, it felt like it came from..." One of the knight whispered, since it is still at the middle of the night, they began to get cautious.
The two knights looked at each other, and as if communicating with their thoughts, they both nodded before opening the door behind them.
"Princess Calea? What's wro– Huh!?" Both knights immediately noticed the shadowy man carrying the unconscious Calea with both of his hands, an intruder had somehow made his way to this room where it was located at the top of the castle, "WHO ARE YOU!?"
Without leaving any more room for a fight or staring contest, the shadowy man jumped down from the window and into the ground below, the height of Calea's room in the castle was around 35 meters from the ground, but this mysterious man just casually took a dive without any ounce of fear inside of him.
"INTRUDER! INTRUDER!! THE PRINCESS HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!" The two knights screamed from the top of their lungs, alerting nearby guards almost instantly.
"!!!— SPREAD OUT!! CLOSE EVERYTHING DOWN AND CHECK EVERY PLACE!"
"PRINCESS CALEA HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!!"
With the highly skilled guard's quick reflexes, the entire patrolling troops was quickly mobilized and they began to search throughout the entire castle structure as well as the outside of it.
Meanwhile, the king and queen, alongside with the princes, was woken up by the loud noises, "What happened!?" Said Aston De' Frederica, also known as the king of Lunarfall.
"YOUR MAJESTY! PRINCESS CALEA HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED! RIGHT NOW WE ARE DOING OUR BEST TO FIND THE CULPRIT!!" Said one of the knight who had come to the King's room to give his report.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Aston couldn't believe what he just heard, "WHO IN THE WORLD DARE TO KIDNAP MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER!"
BOOM!
BOOM!!!
An unexpected explosion goes off from outside, it didn't happen once, but rather multiple times, Aston didn't know what caused it, but it was not the time to check, he needs to think and devise a plan to save Calea.
Aston's face turns into rage, his yellow eyes seemingly illuminating as if portraying the rage within him, he swore that he will find whoever foolish enough to think that they could steal one of the royal family's member, he ordered everyone to scatter throughout the city of Lunexe, no matter how strong the culprit is, they wouldn't be fast enough to leave the city in just a minute.
"W- what... Our Calea— Dear.." Said Verosa De' Frederica, also known as the Queen, she was visibly anxious and scared, imagining what kind of horrible things the kidnapper would do to Princess Calea if they failed to capture the culprit.
Aston's face was right infront of Verosa, both of his hands were on her shoulder, with a furious face, Aston reassured her and said, "Don't worry about it, those fools won't be far away, wait here and protect Leoth and Valden, i'll comeback with Calea, i promise.."
"Your Majesty!" An unordinary looking knight approached Aston, he wore a different looking armor than the other guards in the castle, from the looks of it, he must be a higher ranking knight.
"You are– Commander Hiedd? What is it.." Said Aston, he let go of Verosa and walked forward to get close with Hiedd.
"I am here to report! Multiple hidden Fire Element Magic Crystals have been found throughout the castle! and all of them are on the brink of collapse from mana overload! If we don't do something about it, the crystal will burst and all of those mana will convert into fire! A barrage of explosions will happen!!" Said Hiedd, his face shows concern that couldn't be described with words alone, not only Princess Calea has been kidnapped, but the entire castle is also sabotaged and is about to be destroyed.
"TCH.. CAN WE NEUTRALIZE THOSE MAGIC CRYSTALS!?" Aston replied anxiously, sweat began to form on his face.
"Some of our mage have tried to do that by absorbing the mana inside, But when they were about to do it, the magic crystal exploded right infront of them! Now, they're all scared to do it because they couldn't predict when the magic crystal will explode.." Hiedd continues explaining, there were not much time, it's all chaotic, no one knew what will happen next.
BOOM!!
BOOOOMM!!!
"Urgh.. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE CASTLE! MAKE YOUR WAY THROUGH AND SEARCH FOR CALEA! THAT'S OUR FIRST PRIORITY!" Aston shouted, making sure that his order is loud and clear.
"UNDERSTOOD! YOUR MAJESTY!" Hiedd responded with a similar shout.
The night is still young, what usually a time where people dream and the radiant moon gazed the earth, now turned to a place of hellfire and panic, where the whole city was flipped into anarchy as chaos follows.
***
Scene changed, hidden inside the shadow of trees and walls, lies a man in cloak carrying Calea to a place where no one could see or follow them, unbeknownst to everyone else, the two of them had made it out of the Lunexe City, only the man know that the effort put by King Aston into searching for Calea, is all futile and meaningless, for they will never heard from their daughter again, in a long time.
"Nice to meet you, Princess."
***
The Next Morning...
Rustle..
Rustle....
"Mmmffhh..." Calea wakes up after hearing the rustling sound beside her, she slowly opened her eyes and saw a human body infront of her, "AHH!!" She screamed.
Her loud voice startled everyone else in the room, the human body that she saw was just a boy who's sleeping, Calea lifted her body up until she was at a sitting position, in there, she realized that she was not in the castle anymore, but instead a wooden shack that is occupied by a lot of other people other than her, not only that, every one of them was roughly same age as Calea.
'Where.. Is this..' She thought, 'My dress, gone– We're all wearing the same clothes..'
Not just her, but everybody else also thought of the same thing, they were all brought here against their will and now they awoke, they are all confused and had no idea where they are.
"Huh? Where am i?" Said one of the boy there
"What's happening!? I was sleeping on my bed last night, how did i ended up here?!"
"Did we get kidnapped!?"
"Mom? Dad?.."
"I remember it now, i saw a mysterious man breaking into my house and..."
Seeing the confused face of everyone in the building tells Calea that they're also been kidnapped, not only that, it seems like they're all been kidnapped at the same time as Calea, which is yesterday or last night, however there's one thing that she found odd, and that is..
'Wait.. Am i— the only girl in here?'
Just then, the wooden door infront of everyone opened with a loud creaky noise along with the appearance of a middle-aged man with facial hair and rugged face, at first glance he looks to be a warrior or an adventurer.
'Who is—' Calea thought, not quite sure what was happening.
"...Welcome, all of you who have been chosen." The man said, his cold gaze felt like the northern ice.