Meanwhile...

"Xue!" The shout of the princess echoed through the western forest.

Her voice strained as he held down an enormous mutated rhinoceros with black armour and long, twisted horns.

Vela's hands of molten rock grasped the front and hind legs of the wounded monster. Her body was wearing a full materialisation of molten earth. The molten armour protected her from the blows of this deadly beast as it thrashed against her hold. 

"Good work, Vel." Whispered Mu Xue, standing a few metres away and looking at the raging rhino.

'Hyōka, let's finish this in one blow.'

Mu Xue always felt the need to hold back in the past. Although she could become stronger, she felt the young master's depression and inferiority grow each time she broke through. 

At first, it was nothing until she fell in love with him. Those glances of jealousy and anguish pained her heart.