Unexpected Visitor

The skies were black with smoke. It looked like it was going to rain not only water but also ashes. Kies was back at the castle, or what was left of it, actually.

Carefully walking over the rocks, he asked himself, "Did I do this?" The answer was probably yes. When he released his magic, it destroyed a great portion of the castle and it might've caused the rest to crumble down since it lost its foundation.

However, about half the castle was still standing so it wasn't like he demolished the entire thing. Eh, he will help fix it after all of this is over.

Kies closed his eyes and called out it the winds, directing them into the castle to search for people. He felt the presence of many people. The soldiers finally arrived, though it was a little late now. They were scattered all around, searching for clues just like he was.

The commander and the "boss" had left already from the looks of things. He didn't have much time to find them and force the cure out of them, assuming they even have it.

Right now, if Nyana was back at the inn, she was working on a cure to save the queen, but due to her lack of experience with desert herbs, he couldn't leave it entirely to her to come up with something to handle things.

Kies opened his eyes and turned around, facing back towards where he came from.

There was something wrong... Kies felt that something was about to happen and that something wasn't going to be good. He looked up at the sky. Kies felt something wet hit him in the eye. Rapidly picking up pace, raindrops fell from the sky. It was raining for the first time in years, but this rain didn't feel natural.

The ash-covered sky made it look like a thunderstorm even though it was only drizzling. Kies mind was telling that danger was approaching. He created a wind barrier around his body to block out the rain and everything else as well.

Directly in front of him, Kies saw a person walking towards him. Even in the rain, Kies could see from a distance who it was. The face should've shocked him to the point where he was speechless, and it would've if he didn't know about it already.

"So you're the person that Messa told me about," Kies said, staring the person in the face. He was a good foot shorter than him but the aura he was giving off with his magic was more than enough to make him intimidating.

"Messa? That's her name? I never bothered to learn it..." the person said, his voice sound in like a younger version of Kies. No, it didn't just sound like it, it was it. His face and body were the exact same one as his younger self, up to the most minuscule of details.

Gray eyes, brown hair, a cloak. Even a device on his arm to communicate to Arc. The person standing in front of Kies was a perfect clone of his younger self, wearing the replicas of his magic items.

"It's nice to meet you. Or shall I say, it's nice to meet another me," the younger-looking Kies said calmly to the older-looking one.

Kies continued to stare at himself. Everything about him was the same. Everything but one thing. "You almost got it perfect. You were just slightly off," the real Kies said, eyeing the shimmering entity behind the fake Kies.

"And what would that small mistake be?"

"I don't have any winds spirits."

"...Your senses are sharp."

The winds swirled around next to the fake and a wind spirit appear. "My oh my, I thought I was hiding well. Deary me, looks like I was wrong."

Kies remembered that manner of speaking. He traced it back to the spirit that he had encountered several years ago in the undead forest. However, he still couldn't figure out what the fake was.

An undead from the forest? It was very likely since the White Witch has an alliance with the demons, but it didn't make sense why it took his form.

"I'll answer your question. I am from the forest, but I'm not an undead," the fake said, somehow reading Kies' mind.

"Then what are you?"

"Can't you tell?" The fake released his magic aura. The entire place trembled under its power. It was so dense that the air slowed down. "If you still can't, I'll give you an answer the next time we meet."

With a gust of wind, the fake and the spirit disappeared. Kies stood motionless at the spot, speechless and stunned by what the fake just showed him. The magic was so powerful that his core stopped when he felt it, almost knocking him unconscious.

A being that powerful existed in this world? No, it shouldn't exist in this world. The fake was capable of wiping out all life and destroying everything. The being that appeared before Kies was a God, and not just any God. He controlled the winds, just like him.

***

The smell of the forest filled Iris' nostrils. Wait, forest? What? Iris opened her eyes and shot up from her bed, smacking a person on her left by accident with her hand.

"Hey!" a low angry voice responded. It was Sirks.

"Oops, my bad."

There were a lot of things going on in the room and Iris was still groggy after waking up so she was slow to take in information. But before Iris could ask any questions, something soft and earn tackled her and pushed her head back down onto the pillow.

Iris didn't need to look to see who it was. She hugged her dear sister who had been worried out of her mind about her. "I love you too."

While embracing Wompa, Iris turned her head around the room to see what was going on. For starters, she looked out the window and saw that they were still in the desert, contrary to what the smell in the room made her think. Next, she looked at the elf who was standing not even a foot away from her bed, furiously working on something.

She was taking plants and herbs and tossing them around, blending, mashing, burning, cutting them, you name it. This was where the strong forest smell came from.

"What are-"

"Shh!" Sirks silenced Iris and pointed down at the bedsheets.

"What?"

"Over there."

"Hm? Oh!" Iris didn't know how she missed it but there was someone else in the bed with her. And not just anybody. It was her older sister.

"Jen!?" Iris gently pushed Wompa away and checked the condition of her other sister. Her hands were shivering as she reached for her, afraid that she might be gone...

However, Sirks grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her. "The queen is still alive... for now. If you want to do something to help, lay back down and rest. The last thing I need is for you to cause trouble again," Sirks said grumpily. Though his tone wasn't the nicest, it was written all over his face that he was worried about the girl.

"Cause trouble? I was trying to save people!" Iris exclaimed.

"Trying is different from doing..." Sirks said with a sigh. He was glad that the kingdom had such caring princesses, but they were too ignorant and inexperienced of the outside world. Pampered for all their life, the two of them may have been trained to fight, but they never had a chance to see or be part of a real battle or fight.

"It's better than not doing anything!" Iris frustratedly told Sirks. She understood his good intentions and respected the fact that he always put the safety of her and her sister ahead of everything else, but she didn't like how the guard would often abandon others for their sake.

"Whatever you say, dear princess." Sirks wasn't in the mood to argue and saw that Iris clearly wasn't in the condition to either. Her head was swaying from side to side and she looked like she could faint at any second. "Go lie back down."

"Fine." Iris grudgingly planted her head back down onto the pillow. It was warm and not hot which was surprising. There was a slight chill in the room, something that was rare to come by in the desert. It was either scorching hot in the day or freezing cold at night, but never in between.

Taking a look out the window again, Iris saw that it was still daytime. "Why is it so cold?"

Thinking that Iris was cold, Wompa places her hands on Iris' cheeks and found out that they were indeed cold. Wompa spread out her arms, offering to warm Iris up with her body but she politely refused.

"I'm fine. I just want to know it's so cold in here," she clarified.

"My plants," Nyana answered her question. She was still frantically working on the herbs and Iris was surprised that she could speak while doing all of that.

"Your plants?"

"Yes. I can't work in this heat so I had my plants cool this place down a bit."

Plants could do that? Well, you learn something new every day. "Speaking of which... Whose room are we in?" Iris saw from the very beginning that this wasn't their room. Everything was so neat and tidy, unlike theirs, unless someone cleaned it up when she was out cold.

"Mine."

"Um... Why?"

"Stop asking so many questions and just rest," Sirks interrupted, afraid that Iris was disrupting the elf's work.

"No, don't worry about that. I'm used to having conversations when I'm working," Nyana said as a matter of fact.

"See." Iris stuck at tongue out at the middle-aged man.

"..."

"And to answer your question, your room was destroyed," Nyana answered Iris' question.

"It did!? By what?"

"You'll have to ask your companion about that. They know it better than me."

Iris looked back at Sirks.

"Do you want to apologize to me first?" he asked her, being petty about Iris sticking her tongue out at him.

"I'm sorry... to all the poor innocent wheat plants that were eaten by you."

"What did you say after I'm sorry!?"

"Nothing!"

"Ugh, whatever." It was the closest thing he could get to a sorry from her. "We don't even have carrots here..." he mumbled, clearing having heard everything Iris said.

"Oh! In that case, I'm sorry to all the dew plants that were so violently beheaded by you. Think of their poor families..."

"...You done?"

"Um... There are the rabbits too. The sand you stepped on. The air- Eek!"

Sirks jabbed his fingers into Iris' stomach and started tickling her.

"Hahaha- Stop- S-stop! I'm sorry! Hehehe! I r-really am-"

Sirks stopped and crossed his arms. He was more than eager to continue but he was scared that Iris might kick her ill sister off the bed.

Iris inhaled something deep breathes and opened her mouth and said, "-Not."

"..."

What did Sirks expect...

"Anyway, are you going to tell me what happened to our room?" Iris asked again.

"A wyvern crash-dived into it."

"Really?"

"No, a giant dew plant suddenly sprouted from the ground and blew a hole through our floor and ceiling."

"What!? Tell me the truth!"

"No."

Loud footsteps and the clinking of steel interrupted them. Sirks immediately reached for his sword, but Nyana told him to calm down.

"Probably just soldiers here to investigate what happened. I don't feel hostility from them," she said.

"But still..." Sirks didn't feel safe without his weapon.

"I also put a magic barrier around this room. Sound can't leak out and they can't open this room either," she added. Plus, the windows were one way too. They were completely safe from the outside. No one should know that they were in this room.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"..."

"Princesses, it's me, Jackel."

---

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