Kaijo Palace

As he lay in bed with a beautiful woman, Aziel began to feel Val and Cora's prana. Near them, he sensed two unfamiliar pranas.

"Is that Raijah?" Aziel said as he prepared to leave.

As Aziel got up, the woman touched him as she said, "we haven't started, and you're leaving so soon?"

The woman was white-skinned, with long brown hair, and she wore nothing but an oversized shirt.

"Well," Aziel considered, "I don't sense a battle. So, I could stay for a bit longer."

"Great," the woman said as she pulled Aziel closer.

As Raijah and Teo walked, they received suspicious looks from the people in town.

Raijah was carrying Cora and Val over his shoulders as Teo followed him with his dark sword floating beside him.

As they walked, Raijah asked, "why don't you help carry one of them? They still haven't got their strength back."

Teo looked away as he replied, "It would be weird if I carried one of them right after I was trying to kill them."

Raijah sighed as he said, "you're gonna have to get over that if you want us all to work together."

"Whatever," Teo muttered, "where are we going anyway?"

"I told you before," Raijah responded, "we're going to our teacher's house."

Teo noticed that in every building they passed by, people were watching them through windows and doors.

As Raijah noticed what caught Teo's attention, he said, "ignore them. They aren't worth our time."

They noticed a short blonde-haired woman with a black shirt and pants quickly run into her house.

The woman locked her door, and she saw her husband sleeping on the chair. They lived in a small house with only a living room and a kitchen.

Her husband had dark hair with light stubble. He was shirtless with only black shorts and socks on.

Wake up!" she shouted excitedly.

As her husband forced his eyes open, the woman opened the window revealing Teo and Raijah walking by.

"You see that girl with curly hair on the boy's shoulder?" the woman asked.

Her husband joined her at the window as he said, "what's so special about her?"

The woman smacked him on the head as she shouted, "you idiot! She's the youngest member of the Kaijo family!"

The man rubbed his head as he looked at his wife, expecting an explanation.

The woman sighed as she explained, "she went missing a few days ago. There is a prize of thousands in gold for anyone who has information on her location."

The man's eyes lit up as he attempted to kiss his wife, who rejected his advances.

He ignored this as he exclaimed, "we're going to be rich!"

"Not if you let them get away!" She shouted back, "you need to hurry before they get too far. Go to the Kaijo family palace and tell them that we found their daughter!"

The man quickly ran out the door, with only socks and shorts.

"Don't forget to remind them about our gold prize!" the woman shouted as her husband ran out the door.

The man dashed to a building that was made entirely of gold.

As he arrived and attempted to jump over the golden gate that led to the palace, two guards who had white swords got in his way.

The guards both had entirely gold armor, which covered their heads and left little room for their eyes.

"State your business," one of the guards said calmly.

"I must speak to the king!" the man shouted, "I know where his daughter is!"

The two guards looked at each other as they nodded their heads simultaneously.

"Open the gate!" the guard shouted.

As the gate opened, the man ran inside as he headed towards the entrance.

One of the guards stopped him by lifting him by his hair.

"We will lead you to the king," the guard said calmly.

"I can walk!" the man said as he tried to free himself of the guard's grip.

As the man struggled, the two guards led him inside the golden palace.

The palace had gold furniture, walls, and floors.

"No wonder most of Avalon is poor," the man muttered under his breath, "the royals have all the money."

As they arrived in the throne room, the guard dropped the man on the floor.

There were five golden thrones in the room, and the king sat on the throne in the middle. He held the hand of his wife, who sat beside him.

The king was light skin like Cora, and he had curly brown hair. He wore a red royal mantle with a golden crown on his head.

His wife beside him had white skin, and like Cora, she had curly light ash blonde hair. The queen wore a white gown with diamonds on it.

"K-king Kaijo," the man on the floor stuttered, "I-I know where your daughter is."

As the king heard this, he sat up as he shouted, "where is she!"

"She's at the entrance of our town. A brown-skinned boy with dreadlocks is carrying her along with another girl on his shoulder. There is also another boy walking beside him," the man replied.

"That's the same boy the guards described before. He's the boy with the odd prana from this year's awakening ceremony!" the king shouted angrily,

"What is he doing with my daughter!" he yelled as he slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne.

The queen looked worried as she asked, "what shall we do? We must get Cora back."

The king shouted at the two guards in the room, "you two, send all of the guards! That boy must not get away with my daughter!"

As the two guards scrambled to get the others, the man on the floor said, "b-but, what about the gold reward?"

The king rolled his eyes as he shouted, "Sergio! Koji!"

In a flash, two boys appeared in the room. They stood next to each other as they bickered about who got to the room first.

The boys were both light-skinned. One of them had curly brown hair, while the other had curly white hair.

Both of the brothers had on shiny white suits with black tuxedo shoes.

The boy with brown hair grabbed the man on the floor and shook him as he asked, "who won? Who got here first?"

"I-I don't know," the man replied, "you were too fast."

"Enough!" the king shouted, causing the boy to release the man, "my sons, one of you must assist the guards and get Cora back. The boy that she's with should be no match for you since he just recently unlocked his prana at this year's awakening ceremony."

The boy with brown hair who grabbed the man quickly raised his hand as he shouted, "I'll do it!"

"Very well, Koji," the king responded, "Do not disappoint me. It was embarrassing enough that my daughter ran away. If we fail to get her back, King Hendrix will never let me forget about it."

Koji dashed away to join the guards.

"You don't care about saving Cora," the white-haired boy muttered bitterly, "you're more worried about our reputation and the feud with the Fang family than Cora."

"Sergio," the king said as he turned his attention to his white-haired son, "give this man a sizeable amount of gold as his reward for giving us information on Cora."

The man's face lit up as he bowed and said, "you're so kind!"

Sergio began to walk out of the throne room as he said, "follow me."

He led the man to a room filled with an unimaginable amount of gold and riches.

"Take what you want," Sergio said to the man.

The man began to shiver as he said felt Sergio's cold breath, "t-thank you, sir," the man said.

As Sergio walked away, the man asked, "aren't you going to assist your brother?"

Sergio turned around, "no," he replied, "Koji may be a loudmouth but based on what father said, he's more than strong enough to do this."

The man nodded his head and proceeded to collect as much gold as he could carry while Sergio walked back to his room.

Koji ran outside and caught up with the guards. All of the guards were dressed in golden armor and held their white swords.

As Koji arrived, he realized that he forgot something, "Damn!" he said under his breath.

"You guys go ahead," Koji commanded, "I'll meet up with you. I need to pick something up."

The guards nodded and dashed away in unison. As the guards left, Koji walked towards a grey building behind the castle.

As Koji neared the building, sounds of clattering metal greeted him.

He opened the door revealing the building's grey walls. As Koji walked in, he noticed the floor was wet from sweat.

He walked past the workers who were sweaty from creating swords for the castle guards.

Koji walked to a tall bald man, who was glistening with sweat. He was working on a sword that he had covered in bandages.

"Is it finished?" Koji asked the man.

"Just about," the man said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, "I just need to merge it with your prana, so it's not a liability in battle."

"How long will that take?" Koji asked.

"Around thirty minutes," the man replied, "I've been working since yesterday. If you'd wait, I could do it after I rest. It would be much easier and take less time."

"I don't have time for that," Koji said, "rest up. I'll bring it back for the merge after I get Cora back."

Koji picked up the sword by its bandaged handle as he said, "what's the special enchantment you put on it?"

"It saps energy," the man replied as he grinned proudly, "those enchanted bandages are there so the sword won't sap your stamina too quickly so, do not remove them. Once I merge the blade with your prana, it won't sap your energy at all. And, when I remove the bandages, its energy absorption will be much more powerful."

"Your enchantment prana has always been amazing," Koji said as he grinned at his sword, "I can already feel it sapping my energy, so I'll be quick. It's an amazing gift. Thank you."

The bald man nodded as he said, "No matter what, do not remove the bandages. If you do, the blade will sap your prana too quickly. We'll remove them when it's merged with you."

"Yeah, yeah," Koji replied as he dashed away to meet the guards.

As Raijah and Teo continued to walk, Teo asked, "are those people from Gloria Town alright?"

"So you do care," Raijah said with a smirk, "they're fine. As I was carrying you three while you were still asleep, I saw the townspeople."

Teo looked at Raijah with a confused look, "why didn't you go into the town for help? You carried all three of us for most of the trip until I woke up."

Raijah responded, "you said they ridiculed you and refused to give you food. I'll never ask people who treated my friend poorly for help."

"Thanks," Teo said as he looked at Raijah, who was still carrying both of the girls over his shoulders.

"Fine," Teo said, "I'll carry one of them."

As Teo attempted to help Raijah, beams of light fired at them.

Teo and Raijah dodged the beams as Raijah said, "those look like the beams from the royal guard's swords."

They looked up and saw countless guards running at them.

"Why're they after us?" Teo asked as he grabbed his dark sword, which was floating beside him.

"They're probably after Cora," Raijah said, "I'll explain later. Let's focus on getting out of here."

Teo began to smirk as he said, "let's see who can take the most guards out."

"That's not fair," Raijah argued, "I'm carrying Cora and Val."

"Then I guess you have to try harder," Teo said as he dashed at the guards, with Raijah following behind him.