The insatiable flame of love

I was still angrier about Ember being so close to another man while Markus Terracota was so in love with her, but it was undeniable how helpful she was. She could summon flames as tall as an Elemental Demon, always boiling the water that came attacking us.

But I also wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt as she probably was under the influence of Matteo’s powers.

“Ember!” Agnes Stein jumped by our side.

“Oh, it’s Agnes, right? The newer apprentice of Markus?”

“Well, actually, she is the newest apprentice, her name is Nina Nune.”

“That’s a cool name! Nice to meet you, Nina Nune. Is Markus also here?”

“Why, were you doing something he shouldn’t know about?” I asked being very discreet.

Before she could even answer, the ninja also joined us, as another hand tried to attack, but Ember blocked without even looking.

“I’m sorry, Ember, I failed to control the situation with your help, but Nikolay is alright… well, he is safe.”

“Relax, Hiyoku, none of us were expecting an Elemental Demon to be here.”

“Speaking of that, if we find his body Nina Nune can destroy them easily, another friend of ours is pointing to they with that blue thread, but they are inside the water,” explained Agnes Stein.

“Wow, I’m impressed by all of you. I will help find this guy and you finish them off then, okay?”

I agreed and Ember simply put her hand to the ground. We all felt the temperature rising at incredible speed, but the water was being affected even more. Soon all the water of the region was gone, and the body of the Blue Demon appeared. Glowing in a deep blue hue, and they were as tall as the others, but since they were inside the canal we were at his head height.

I summoned my Void Bubbles, which quickly did their job, and the Blue Demon was no more.

“How…?” Hiyoko was astonished, but Ember kept her friendly smile.

“Void Stanza? That is rare. And what are you doing here without Markus?”

From the way that she spoke she didn’t seem to know what happened with the Tower of Heroes.

“Ember, I think we need to talk,” said Agnes Stein seriously.

We got both Rita Fiori and the prince that could walk and was also not under the control of the criminal.

“Did you needed to kick that hard?” he asked to his companion.

“I don’t know if you have met, but these are my two apprentices, Kurohana Hiyoko and Prince Nikolay Pompovisk”

I tried to hold back my laughter about his name as it was not the moment for that.

“My prince!” said Rita Fiori making a bow. “The king is very worried about you!”

“Let him be… I was not born to stay locked in a castle, I’m as free as a bird and the world needs a Hero more than a prince.”

While they talked, Hiyoko turned to me.

“So, you are strong? Well, I’m the strongest Heroine in training, you certainly are not as strong as me.”

“Oh, certainly not, I’m very weak, but you must have defeated a lot of Elemental Demons. Maybe the Cyan and Turquoise ones?”

“Wait… what?”

“Well, I have defeated the Red Demon by myself, and the Blue one and the Orange one with help. Agnes Stein even defeated the Yellow Demon fused with a Hero. You must have fought the ones who are missing.”

Something happened because she stopped talking and just looked at me like I was a ghost. After that, Agnes Stein cleared her throat and looked seriously at all of us.

“Let me tell you what happened.”

She told them everything that had happened since the battle with the Red Demon and for the first time, Ember was not smiling.

“That’s… a lot”

“We know, but Markus is now in Deep Green, following a lead on Elvira,” Agnes Stein said.

“Well, we already know where we are going next. Finish what we must do in this town, and we will leave in a few hours.”

As the only adult in the group, we accepted Ember’s order, and we were already going to Deep Green anyway.

The town threw Matteo into a prison where he wouldn’t be able to control anyone’s mind, and the true leader of the town returned to his position. The criminal also did refuse to talk anything, so if he knew anything about Elvira we didn’t learn it.

When we were refilled with food for the journey I took Rita Fiori to the side.

“Hey, sister, I want to apologize for how I was before, asking you to do all those things.

“Ah, don’t worry. Look, I even found this.” She gave me a perfect round rock.

“This is wonderful! But listen, I really think we should worry about that. You shouldn’t do everything someone asks, and I should think more about how people really work, I didn’t need to ask you to do that many things.”

But I accepted the stone as a sign of our friendship.

“Well, Gengis always says that I should think a little before accepting helping someone. Maybe we can both help each other become better.”

We hugged and when she joined the others, I noticed a black spot in my white skirt. It might got dirty in all those missions we did.

Once we were all ready, we boarded a big chariot that Ember had hired to take us to Deep Green.

“Ember, I would like to know, what Matteo made you do while he was controlling your mind?” I asked, still bothered by her and other man together.

“Oh, my mind was not taken over. I’m strong enough that a Stanza that weak couldn’t do a thing to me. I didn’t helped earlier because it was a test for Hiyoko and Nikolay. I used the free time to enjoy the city.”

With that answer, Agnes Stein and I looked at each other worried and without knowing what to do.