The Forgotten City: Mannangal

After they finally arrived at the port, Yuma smiled said,

"This is the third time we are getting separated. It feels usual at this point."

"Yeah, it does."

Then Orano added,

"But from now on, we all know what to do. Inform others as soon as possible and try to suppress this situation in the calmest way. We'll meet again at Idrisud when we're done. So until then, be careful."

"You too. And please don't get yourself in trouble."

Caitrin smiled and said,

"We can't promise on that one. But we will try."

After their conversation, Yuma and Lydia finally drove away from there with the carriage and got far away. 

And after they left there, Caitrin turned to Orano and said,

"So we are going to use a ship to travel once again. At least it is better than a carriage."

"It may be the last time we use this."

"What do you mean?"

"If we make it to Theorandia safely, we will travel with the carriage once more since it is closer and easier."

Caitrin said sarcastically,

"So you meant that."

And after they finally got onto a ship, Caitrin asked,

"Why did we got on to a ship anyway? Isn't the eighth Kingdom forbidden to other people?"

"It is correct that it is forbidden. But we are not directly going there."

"How? Is there any other way?"

"Since it is the closest, we will travel to Vurudora once more. And after that, we will travel to the eight kingdom by carriage and we will stop at the barrier. Then we will open the barrier with the necklace and enter the kingdom there."

"That makes sense." said Caitrin, as she looked back.

She started to stare at the port and thought for a couple of minutes. 

What was the feeling that she had since Vurudora? Why didn't go away? And how it appeared in the first place? She didn't know either.

She just looked at the foggy air and said with a thoughtful expression,

"But seriously, it's really like you said."

Orano looked at her confused. 

Then Caitrin added,

"It feels like we are slowly getting to the end of it."

And as she said that, they got away from the port and sailed towards the seventh kingdom.

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And after travelling for three days, they finally arrived at the border of Vurudora.

At first, they thought they were going to have trouble, but fortunately, nothing happened. After traveling for a while, they have even found a horse-drawn carriage and finally arrived at the entrance to the eighth Kingdom and where the barrier was. 

Now the entrance was standing in front of them. There was a yellow barrier covering a huge kingdom, it was extremely thick, but even if was difficult to look inside, its huge castle was easily visible even from where they were. 

And the entrance they found, was on the end of a forest path and next to a cliff and a shore.

So Orano stopped the carriage right in front of the barrier, took out the necklace that they have brought with them, and started to approach the barrier.

Caitrin asked while staying at the carriage,

"What are you going to do?"

Orano replied,

"Since we don't know what to do, I will try something and see if it works out."

After he said that, he pushed the necklace against the barrier and waited for a couple of seconds. 

Fortunately, the barrier took the necklace and examined it for a while. Then the necklace shone brightly and the barrier sent the necklace back, by opening a very big entrance for them to enter easily. 

Caitrin then said with a surprised voice tone,

"I really didn't expect something like this to happen."

Then Orano quickly ran back to the carriage and started to drive through the entrance.

But even though they entered without any problem, the landscape they saw was not at all heartwarming. 

Everything in the city was burned to the ground. There was no solid building, no solid road, no land. All the soil, grass, even the atmosphere was rotten. Its soil and grass were black, and its atmosphere and sky were a mixture of red and orange. 

This burned-out city they arrived in, was called "Mannangal" of the Kingdom of Theorandia and even though it was now a burned-out city, it used to be known for the combat equipment it offered to people and its countless brave soldiers. Its popularity was spread throughout every kingdom and everybody wanted to visit there. But with the fall of this Kingdom, the kingdom of Faye rose to the top and became the most famous Kingdom after Theorandia.

And even though she had never come to this kingdom before, Caitrin became very upset to see a kingdom like this. Even thinking about how many people lost their memories and lives here, it hurt her as if she had lived there for years.

And while she was having thoughts about how the city got like this, Orano got out of the carriage and started walking. 

At first, Caitrin got confused and said to Orano nervously,

"Where are you going?"

"We are here." Orano said while pointing to the big castle in front of them.

And he was right, there it was the big castle of Mannangal. 

The castle was quite large, and like the city itself, the outside of it was black. But its entrance was open, and it had no traps to drive anyone away.

That made Caitrin a little suspicious, so she asked,

"I know there's no one here rather than the witch, but do you think we should just go in there?"

"I guess we have to find that out by going inside." Orano replied as he walked towards the castle.

Caitrin then sighed and said with a disappointed expression,

"What was I even thinking? Of course, we will respond to fire with fire."

And she followed Orano into the castle. 

Castle's big and scary look made Caitrin think about it a lot, but the interesting thing that caught Caitrin's attention was that the inside of the castle looked quite stylish compared to the outside, and it was clean as if it were being maintained every day.

Caitrin then thought to herself,

*It looks very good actually. But how can this happen? Isn't the witch all alone here?*

She then looked like she realized something and added,

*Unless someone's been taking care of it.*

Orano then looked around the castle and said,

"She has to be somewhere around here. If we start to look-"

But just when he was about to finish his words, they started to hear shoutings and things falling down.

"Hey! Get back here! You know you are going to get in there anyway! Hey! don't go there!"

And after they heard those shoutings, a little plant-like creature ran past Orano. But just then it was about to get away, somebody caught up to them and held the creature in the air with a spell.

"So that's how you want it to end? Then don't blame me for what will happen next."

She then carried it in the air and put the little creature into a tiny bottle. 

Then she said,

"Now that I've finally settled this, I can go back to doing the other two potions."

And there she was. The legendary witch was just standing right in front of them. Looking at the bottle with a sneaky smile.