POV Ariella

It hadn’t been a day since we had gotten back from the Atlantis that we were already on our way to some other place called the Snowy Mountains.

I had no idea what it was, and I had never even heard of it. However, from what the other students were saying, it was a dangerous place and a pretty crazy one, all things considered. All kinds of rumors had been floating around this place.

Still, I didn’t care too much about it. I knew that Caedrel would protect us if things went wrong.

Nevertheless, walking for two days straight had been pure torture for both me and the rest of the students. However, for me, who had been locked up for quite a long time, exercising in such a way out of nowhere was extremely taxing on my body, and I honestly had no idea if I would have been able to continue walking if we hadn’t stopped.

However, our “break” wasn’t even a break!

As soon as we woke up from our little five-hour nap, Caedrel was shouting everywhere that they needed to get ready for an enemy coming in their direction…

I wasn’t even strong. I was a princess who had been captured at a young age. I didn’t have any powers compared to the rest of them. I couldn’t even summon the Elves’ Goddess…I was useless as I watched Ariel, the Emperor’s daughter, guide everyone, giving them orders as if it was only natural.

Then, after some time, she looked over in my direction, preparing herself to give me my orders. However, as she opened her mouth, she seemed to be hesitant.

“Hey, what can you do? I never saw you fight, so I’m just wondering.”

I blushed as I looked down, not daring to look her in the eyes because of how embarrassing my answer would be.

“Well…it’s complicated. To be honest, I don’t have any powers just yet. So, just don’t worry about me. I’ll just hide and try to survive as best I can.”

Ariel wanted to say something to me based on its looks; however, she closed her mouth.

“Alright, then do that. Just don’t be the one weighing us down.”

I nodded shyly, knowing very well that this could be a possibility. That’s why I wanted to have Caedrel to teach me some stuff. After all, he was the most powerful person I had ever seen in my life, and I believed that he could make me stronger. I hoped that he would so that I could take revenge on everyone who wronged me.

Once I become strong enough, my two disgusting parents would be the first to know about it.

Nevertheless, after Ariel uttered those words to me, I quickly turned around and went to hide myself away from them. However, I still made sure to have a good spot so I could see how they would proceed since I was quite curious about it.

Within minutes, everyone had gotten their roles, and everyone was ready to face whatever enemy Caedrel had prepared for them.

Everyone looked confident, as if nothing could happen to them, surprisingly. I would have thought that they would have been scared out of their minds. But everyone was calm and collected.

I wasn’t sure if that was an effect that Ariel procured or if they simply trusted Caedrel like I did…it was hard to tell without asking questions.

-Boom!

-Boom!

Out of nowhere, loud noises came from the forest, and they became louder and louder as milliseconds passed.

-BOOM!

-BOOM!

The trees started to fall down, and we could see a path slowly getting made by whatever beast was coming in their direction.

Because of how far I was from everyone else, I couldn’t exactly know what was happening, nor did I have any idea what kind of monster this was, but I was expecting the worst of the worst.

“I-Is that a goblin?!”

I suddenly heard coming from them.

‘A goblin? Aren’t they supposed to be extremely weak?’ I thought in the back of my mind as I couldn’t imagine a goblin causing such noises simply by running around.

This made little to no sense.

“I-It is a goblin! But it’s so big and massive…we’re gonna have to be careful around him without a doubt,” Ariel suddenly said. “Everyone keep your positions, and wait for my signal to fire all your spells in his direction.”

The goblin was getting closer and closer to them as the seconds passed by, and finally, after a few moments, Ariel shouted as loud as she could, causing shivers to run down my spine because of the strength in her voice.

“FIREEE!”

As those words were uttered, everyone who could muster long-range attacks fired their strongest spell, and all close-range fighters ran forward with their weapon in hand, prepared for everything that would be headed in their direction.

A ton of smoke was suddenly created because of all the spells being cast, making it hard for me to see anything.

I was wondering where Nymira and Lirael were, as they also weren’t fighting, but that thought quickly vanished from the back of my mind. I was wondering what was currently happening in the battle. Were they winning? Were they losing?

I had no idea, and after some time, my curiosity got the better of me, prompting me to stand up and advance toward the smoke.

The noises caused by the battle were suddenly blocked out from my head as I walked forward, forgetting about everything that was happening apart from that smoke.

Suddenly, I could see a green figure running in my direction, his mouth wide open as if it couldn’t wait to devour me as a whole. However, even as I saw such a thing, I wasn’t worried.

A strong wind suddenly formed around my figure, and a beautiful ethereal figure, unlike anything I had ever seen before, was before me, comforting me.

“You poor child…I’m sorry for not showing up earlier in your life. The curses surrounding your being were too powerful for me to break through.”

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