On the other side of the valley.
The serpent fell to the ground and the man in gold slowly landed on its head.
He was a young man with a blank expression, wearing a white-goldish full body armor and a pair of black leather gloves. On the back of his gloves, there were two parallelogram engravings.
"It's over, Kevin," he spoke in a calm tone as he stood beside the serpent's white eyes.
The serpent opened its eyes, revealing the dark space inside.
A man in black climbed out of the serpent's right eye, his body covered in wounds, and fell to the ground right away.
"Where are the fragments?" the man questioned in a deep tone.
The man in black chuckled and opened his mouth. "Too late, I've already handed them over to Puppet. You can try to take them from the puppet if you want."
"The Puppet…" The man in white's expression turned serious. "Was that what you were planning?"
"We knew each other for years but I didn't expect to see you here. Why should I save the fragments for you if I already know that I can't win the fight against you? I'm not dumb."
The man in black sneered and disappeared into the cracks in the sky after turning into a ray of black light.
"Fool." The man did not watch the black ray leave, he turned around and headed to where the next fragment was. "You'll lose everything if you don't keep the fragments for yourself. Dark Wizard Tower will not waste their resources on erasing your memory."
"Puppet…" the man muttered and his expression turned even more serious.
He followed the lead given by the fragments and increased his speed.
After about half an hour, he finally arrived at the indicated location that was near the river.
He turned several times and arrived at a small canyon.
The man gasped as he stepped into the canyon. A man in brown was fighting against four other wizards just by himself.
Rays of black electricity-infused flames were splashing everywhere. Translucent energy waves were appearing and disappearing from time to time; the wizards were attacking the man like it was a tag match.
Every time the four wizards tried to prepare a strong spell, they would be interrupted by the man in brown. However, they decided to cast the spells one by one so the man had to defend against their strikes.
The whole canyon was full of the noise made by the electric pulse and fire explosions, the wind created by the wind energy particles, and the furious roars from the elemental golems.
The man in gold recognized the man that was fighting against four wizards immediately, it was Puppet.
"Alright, time is up." There was a mysterious smile on Puppet's face as he suddenly raised his right hand.
The four suddenly stopped moving, they could no longer cast spells and looked scared.
The four wizards were hit by a black fireball released by Puppet.
*BOOM*
Four rays of black light soared into the sky after the explosion.
Puppet waved his right hand—the black fragments were drawn into his palm and quickly formed an incomplete core.
"Reveal yourself, Insect!" His voice turned serious, yet Puppet was not talking to the man in gold, he was looking at the other side of the mountain.
Suddenly, translucent waves appeared on the mountain and a human-shaped shadow stepped out of the waves as his body quickly solidified. It was a creature with the head of an insect and the body of a human.
Insect's head looked identical to a caterpillar's head. There were two green tentacles on top of its head and its eyes were reflecting a light purple color. Those eyes looked like they were taken from a humongous fly.
"How did you detect me?" Insect sounded confused, his voice was deep and hoarse.
Puppet chuckled but he did not answer the question, he just stared at Insect.
The atmosphere got heavy as the two stopped talking.
"Insect, what's the point of ambushing me? You're a strong wizard and you should go for Albatross, I'm sure he has more fragments than me." Puppet narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth again.
"Albatross? Why don't you ask me to go for Swordsman?" Insect sneered. "I prefer a quick death than a slow one."
"Well, go ahead if you want to." Puppet shrugged.
The two stopped talking again after finishing the conversation; they feared each other's power but they were still trying to find the best moment to start the battle.
The canyon was deadly silent; the only noise was made by the wind.
The man in gold breathed slowly and started backing off—he knew that he could not win the fight against any of the two strong wizards.
A translucent wave appeared in the sky above the canyon when the three were about to act.
The wave had a diameter of five meters and was slowly expanding. It looked like an enormous glass plate.
*CHI*
A human in white slowly stepped out of the wave.
It was a woman wearing a tight white armor. Her body was slim and there were six white bones lining up on her back. They looked like a pair of bone wings without any feathers.
Puppet and Insect raised their heads at the same time. Their expressions changed quickly, it seemed like they already realized what was happening.
"A strong wizard that just jumped through the divisions!" Puppet spoke in a deep voice. "She probably has more than four complete cores if she can jump through the divisions. I'm sure she's the strongest wizard in her starting division!"
"The translucent wave was the rift wave and she used the cores to break the walls separating the divisions!" His expression turned serious.
Insect knew that the situation changed, he exchanged eye contact with Puppet and they decided to finish off the outsider first.
A strong wizard from a different division was not here just to visit, she was here to collect more cores.
They knew that they would not be able to win the fight against her alone and they had to work together.
"Now!" Puppet swung his arms and countless white strings flew toward the woman in the air.
Insect stamped his feet and a black shadow of an insect appeared on the ground, charging toward the shadow of the woman that was floating in the air. The shadow was moving without releasing any energy waves and it was deadly silent.
It almost looked that it was not the first time the two worked together.
The woman looked at the two and narrowed her crystal-clear eyes.
*WOO*
The next moment, everything in the area stopped moving.
The white strings in the air, the black shadow on the ground, Puppet's arms, Insect's mouth, and the man in gold's right foot...
The river stopped running and the air flow completely disappeared.
The color also disappeared from the space.
The river, the mountains, and the objects in the area, they all turned black and white.
With a flick of the woman's finger, three rays of white light were released from her fingertips and landed on the three's foreheads.
*CHI CHI*
Two rays of black light shot into the air and the black fragments gathered on the woman's palm.
The woman collected the fragments and scrunched her eyebrows. The color finally returned to the area several seconds later.
The only thing left on Puppet's original location was a pile of wood dust. He was escaping on a large wooden bird.
Puppet's face turned pale and the wooden bird's speed was increasing. He saw that there were still wizards fighting below him.
The woman in white was flying toward him, increasing her speed. The wizards she passed by were all hit by strings of white light and turned into black light. The fragments from the area below were all collected by the woman.
It felt like the woman was a reaper and no wizard could escape from her strike.
White bubbles were coming out of Puppet's mouth; he used a secret technique to escape, but the technique severely injured his body. Although he was a strong wizard, he could not activate the secret technique consecutively.
Several other wizards noticed the situation and started escaping. Some were riding their magic pets, some were assisted by their wind golems, some were accelerating using the pure power of the energy particles.
All the wizards were trying to move at the highest speed they could reach.
The wizards that were moving slowly were all finished off by the woman.
Rays of black light stroke into the air and the woman was still collecting the fragments.
"Let's head to Swordsman's location!" someone shouted.
"Damn! Where did this woman come from?!" a wizard with a fractured arm shouted while flying in the air at full speed.
"Yes, go find Swordsman! This woman is from another division and Swordsman is the only one who can stop her!" Puppet shouted as well. He knew that his mentality was running low. He escaped the first attack using the scapegoat and his injury was slowing him down.
"I'd rather give all my fragments to Swordsman! If all the fragments in this division are taken away by her, our rank in the organization will all be lowered!" he kept shouting.
The woman in white suddenly stopped and watched the wizards flying away like an army of bees.
She slowly landed on top of a mountain.
The woman raised her hands and formed a longbow with the white light.
*CHI*
She pulled the bowstring to the full as a white flame appeared in her right eye. The woman's sight went over the mountains and rivers, falling upon an empty ground on top of a hill.
Angele suddenly opened his eyes and two exchanged eye contact despite the distance between them.