Chapter 24

"Please hold him." Tiara passed Alan to Emma. "Move to that forest, when you find the big stone, there you will see my friend waiting for you." Tiara ordered them to run away from this place. "What about you?" Emma questioned as she took Alan from Tiara. "Save your worries for later, you must move, now!" Tiara ordered her to quickly leave because she wanted to deal with the woman on the tree. "Thank you." Emma took Alan along with her child and left Tiara behind. "But my mother…" Emma ignored Alan's words.

"Run my toys, there is no place for you to hide in once I deal with this woman." The woman on the old tree said followed by an evil laugh. It was as if it was fun for her at this moment. "Take back your words because you mess with the wrong woman, bitch." Tiara draws her swords, positioned them into her stance and sharply stared at the woman on the tree. Due to the intensity of her emotions, it was as if you could feel the aura of anger all around her. She was totally pissed off.

The evil woman on the tree flew down. She used her magic to support her body for landing. "We know about you, Lady Tiara." Tiara was surprised after she heard what was said by the evil lady. Tiara noticed that she used the pronoun 'we' and not 'I' when she spoke. She felt that it was rather strange and assumed that perhaps she did not work alone to commit such crimes.

"I am Ivy, just like the plant that brings you death." The evil woman who wore a full black cloak and a mask that covered her face introduced herself. "So, you are a witch." Tiara saw Ivy pulled out her black dagger and proceeded to fuse her Mana aura to her sword without the use of a mana stone. Unlike Tiara, her sword was embedded with a Mana stone which produced her power.

"Any last words?" Ivy showed off her cockiness while she played with her dagger. With a sword in her hand, Tiara slowly walked towards Ivy without fear. "You will regret this." Suddenly Tiara disappeared in a blink of an eye. After that, she suddenly appeared in front of Ivy. Under the moonlight that glistened, Tiara groaned as she swung her swords towards Ivy. When Ivy saw her sword was swung in her direction, she defended herself from the attack with her dagger. When the sword and dagger clashed, the force of their collision caused a lot of sparks.

After the clash, Tiara was pushed back by a few steps due to the force but Ivy was only pushed behind a few centimeters from where she initially stood. No one was injured in the first attack. "Impressive, what a nice warm-up." Ivy provoked Tiara. Without much talk, Tiara attempted a second attack. For her, it did not matter if she won or lost as long as her son was safely rescued from the old house.

At the same time, after a run that was long and tiring, Emma finally managed to identify the big rock that was not too far from her. She walked towards the big rock, and behind it, she was met with Gudnight. "Hello there, you must be Mrs. Emma, the daughter of Marquess Morrison." Gudnight happily greeted Emma. Then, Gudnight smiled towards Emma's daughter but she did not return the smile but instead hid behind her mother as she was scared of strangers.

"Gudnight." Emma responded in such a hurry. Emma passed Alan to Gudnight and allowed her to take care of him because at this point she was far too tired from the journey as she helped Alan to hold up his body as they executed their escape. "Wow! You already know my name. I must be popular." Gudnight spoke highly of her own self. "I hope we can be friends." Gudnight took the opportunity to befriend someone she saw that could benefit her in the near future but, Emma ignored Gudnight and went on to prepared her horse to leave this place. "We must quickly leave this place." Emma lifted her daughter and placed her on their horse and then proceeded to help herself up the horse. Emma quickly rode it away from the area.

Gudnight helped Alan slowly ride her horse. It took some time for Alan to adjust until he was able to ride the horse properly and for the horse to comfortably move with two riders. Gudnight looked in the direction of the old house and thought to herself that Tiara was still there and the fact that she did not return along with her. "What are you waiting for, leave fast!" Emma forced Gudnight to leave the place they were in. It sounded like she was desperate to reach a safe place. Gudnight rode her horse with Alan and right before they left, Gudnight took one more look at the same place and said; "Good luck, hermanita." Gudnight seemed to know the fate of Tiara. Then, all of them commanded their horses to trot and subsequently galloped as fast as the passing wind to their escape.

On the battlefield, which was right in between the old houses' backyard and the barren tree Ivy was first seen on; Tiara made many attempts to attack Ivy. She seemed tired after many unsuccessful and failed efforts to take Ivy down. Perhaps she was not completely recovered from her illness but nevertheless, she still stood before her enemy and tried to not to show her tiredness so that her enemy was not able to take advantage of her fatigue. Tiara gasped for air and wiped all of the sweat off of her face and formed her stance. For Ivy, she seemed calm and did not attempt any more attacks towards Tiara. However, it was as if Ivy looked forward to more attacks from Tiara as she was sure that Tiara was no match to her.

"Strategizing for more attacks? …or perhaps you have already exhausted yourself?" Ivy tried to provoke Tiara as she felt like she waited too long for Tiara to attack her and resume the battle. "I can give you some time for you to rest." Ivy continued to provoke Tiara. Tiara scoffed after she heard all the provocation from Ivy. However, Tiara did not take those provocative words to heart.

"You are quite good at provoking people but, for me, you are just a coward who uses innocent people as the subject of your experiment." Tiara replied to Ivy's provocative remarks. "So what? My toys will be happy and thankful to become my lab rat." Tiara's provocation seemed to not have worked on Ivy as she did not have even an ounce of remorse and guilt for what she had done when she used innocent people as her lab rats.

"Just give up old lady. It's time you put yourself asleep inside a coffin." As she ridiculed and mocked Tiara, Ivy yet again showed her extreme cockiness. "You are right, I might be old but I still have many tricks up my sleeves to show I am still capable of winning this battle." Tiara responded to her with a cool smile that gave off an air of confidence. For Ivy, that smile was perceived as rather annoying to the point it triggered her temper. "Show me what old tricks you can do to me." Ivy lifted both of her hands nonchalantly to signify that she did not need to perform any sort of preparation to face Tiara's next attack.

Without delay, Tiara charged towards her at the speed of light. From the position in which Tiara stood, she suddenly disappeared and then appeared in front of Ivy. Tiara swung her sword towards Ivy but Ivy easily dodged the attack. Then, Tiara disappeared again and appeared on Ivy's left side and launched another attack. As Ivy had already predicted Tiara's tactics, she was prepared and managed to quickly dodge it again. "What?!" Ivy was shocked that Tiara did not attack her but instead, she just vanished again and reappeared behind Ivy. Ivy was deceived by Tiara as she thought Tiara was about to attack her but in reality, it was just one of her sly tricks to confuse her.

From behind Ivy, Tiara swung her sword. However, this time around, Ivy did not make it in time to evade Tiara's attack. Suddenly, there was a light from nowhere that sparkled between the both of them. The light came with a strong repelling force that separated them as it pushed them in opposite directions which sent them flying backward. The force further pushed them but Tiara resisted in an effort to not let her body fly away. She positioned both her feet firmly on the ground with her body in a crouched manner and planted herself to the ground in an effort to stabilize her body as much as she was able to. The drag marks which her feet made left a trace of how far she was blown away. After the strong force of wind mellowed to a soft blow of wind, Tiara stood up, dusted off the dirt and sand on her clothes. Tiara's sword gave off some smoke in the aftermath of the incident.

"I see." Tiara said after she observed her own sword. Tiara then looked at Ivy and found her doing the same thing as Tiara did. She cleaned her cloak but it was apparent that her cloak had torn a little on her right arm after the attack. At this time, Ivy's expression changed to a serious face after she was attacked by Tiara. "Your magic was not enchanting; you're not one of our people." Tiara said after she saw what had just happened in the battle. The force of light that blew them apart actually came from Ivy.

"So, you want to say that you are at a disadvantage?" Ivy smirked at Tiara as she attempted to mock. Tiara replied with her short laughter, as she considered Ivy's words as a mere joke to her. "No, you are now at a disadvantage." Tiara positioned herself into her stance again as she swung her sword. As her sword was swung, a clear sound of her sword hitting against something was heard.

"At thy hand, I am holding thy ferrum. Come forth ignes!" After Tiara completed her chants, the Mana stone on her sword shone brightly, a fire ignited on her sword which covered her whole sword. As for Ivy, the Mana stone on her dagger also shone which signified that she too, used her magic although the exact type of magic she used was unknown.

The atmosphere of the battle between them suddenly shifted. This time around, Ivy engaged in the attacks. She ran quickly towards Tiara with evil laughter. "Don't disappoint me, old lady." Ivy's shadow suddenly split into two and formed into clones of her which then both attacked Tiara at once. Tiara fell into a state of confusion as she was unsure which one was the real Ivy. As Ivy moved closer and closer to her, Tiara attempted an attack as she was not able to think any longer. "Ignes, vulnus!" Tiara swung her sword which produced a slash of fire. Tiara thought her slash of fire accurately hit Ivy but much to her dismay, it actually hit one of Ivy's shadow clones. Tiara had difficulties in identifying which of the two was the shadow clone and which of the two was the real Ivy as they looked exactly the same.

Words Meaning:

1. Hermanita=sister/little sister

2. Ferrum=iron/holy iron

3. Ignes=fire

4. Vulnus=slash