-Malia’s POV-

I sighed, waiting for them to finish their conversation with the King. We were still in the crowds of people who were watching the ending performance of dancers.

“Where are they?” I grunted in frustration.

“I mean, they can take as long as they want. LOOK at these dancers! Damn…” Jace’s eyes glistened, mesmerised, causing me to scoff.

“Shut up Jace.” Naz rolled her eyes.

“Agreed.” I smirked.

“I- I mean y-you could probably do way better Malia…” he scratched his nape, awkwardly, glancing at me.

“I’m hungry. Do you guys want popcorn?” I asked, getting up out of my seat. Ciara and Johan nodded and Naz ignored my question, watching the dance.

“I’ll come.” Jace got up next to me, intently like an eager puppy.

“N-No. Sit down you idiot.” I left the arena, making my way to the outside stands which were luckily empty.

“MOCHI, wait up!” Jace called after me. Halting, I waited for him to catch up. Why does he always go after me even after I tell him to stay?!

Either way, we got the popcorn and made our way back into the arena. When we reached the isolated place of the back, an unsettling feeling bothered me. My eyes scanned my surroundings but I couldn’t spot anything except for Jace gulfing down my popcorn.

“Ow!” I yelped, the popcorn in my hands falling onto the floor. My eyes looked up and met a large adult. The guy who bumped into me had a mask on his face and his body was filled with metallic armour, covering all of his skin.

“Watch it-” I was about to send this guy to his grave but Jace gripped my arm next to me, shaking. “WHAT?!” I glared at him but when I saw the expression on his face, I followed his line of sight.

A line of people, dressed exactly like the masked guy, stood afar from us, blocking our path. One guy standing in the middle caught my eye. He was dressed in normal attire with no mask. He was from the were men race with caramel skin and dark brown eyes. I tilted my head a little, studying his features. He was definitely around 18 to 22 years old and noticeably more muscular than his adult friends. Suddenly, the guy next to me just poofed and disappeared.

“Where can I find Zeref Amara?” the guy spoke to Jace and I in an amused tone.

“What do you want from Zeref?” I spoke my suspicions.

“If you know where he is, please disclose us his current location.” one of the adults spoke in a subtle but eerie tone.

Zeref… What sick, twisted secrets are you keeping?

Zeref was always weird. I acted totally okay with the fact that he had THREE PURE elements. Pure elements were rare enough but he had three! Lightning being one of them yet he never showed it off. It was suspicious. Zeref is a natural show off so why not show off your lightning element? I had a lot of questions about Zeref but didn’t want to bore him. He intrigued me.

“He is our friend.” Jace tried to sound confident but his voice wavered. What happened to the guy who yelled at Jade?! I swear this guy had like 5 personalities.

The tan guy stepped forwards, waving his men off. They also poofed and only he was left.

“I am Ranveer Ali.” he saluted lazily, his were men ears perking up as he looked at me. His hand started to glow bright red. His power probably being molten iron fists?

To my surprise, his hair lit up in flames on his head. Fire element. I’ve never met another person who held the same pure element I did.

“Uhm? So are we supposed to fight now? Or-” I looked at him awkwardly.

“I’m on mana pool stage 1. I cant fight a scary ass dude like that!” Jace looked at Ranveer in disbelief. I giggled.

“The most I could do is put out the fire on his head with the little water spurts shooting out of my finger tips.” Jace panicked.

“You have water spurts as your power?” I held in my laugh.

“No. I have the pure water element but I’m adopted so I didn’t have the privilege of learning-” A loud bang interrupted him and he disappeared from my sight, flinging into the wall by a big fire ball.

“Acknowledge me you fools!” Ranveer raged, his fists on fire from throwing the fire ball.

“OW… Jeez. Desperate much?” Jace grunted, the rubble of the wall falling off of his uniform as he stood back up. At first he wobbled to find his balance and the middle of his shirt was gone with a nasty burn on the surface of his skin. “Fricking attention seeker.” he grumbled under his breath, annoyed.

“Are you okay?” I ran over to him, helping him find his balance. He grunted again in response. Spinning around, I faced Ranveer, glaring into his eyes and activating mana.

“You prick.” I scoffed. Who did this guy think he was? I decided to mimic him and turned my fists bright red. He whistled in response, amused.

Before I could attack, Jace grabbed my shoulder. “Let’s just go.” he said, his stiff stance showing how much pain he was in. The skin on his stomach had patches of indented and melted skin. Definitely a 3rd degree burn. A yellowish substance bubbled in the middle of the dents and the disgusting look of a graze in the peach coloured field of missing skin sent shivers up my spine. This Ranveer guy really didn’t hold back.

It took all my power to subside my anger and start helping Jace walk back but Ranveer wasn’t too happy with that. His arm swung in the air and a slash of fire flew at me but I easily put up a shield out of fire, absorbing his attack and bouncing it back at him. His flame mana left me fatigued and I realised he was way stronger than I thought.

Ranveer stood forward and all I saw was a flash. Jace let out a scream and like a fast motioned action scene, he was knocked far away from me. “JAC- AH!” I felt a strong grip push me down on my knees with my hands stretched behind my back. Two of his sidemen held me on my knees and a circle of fire surrounded me… but this wasn’t like anything I had ever conjured.

The smoke intoxicated me, leaving me nauseous and the most concerning thing was that my mana was weakened to nearly nothing. It was like his fire was oppressing mine. Who the HELL was he?!

My eyes trailed Ranveer as he walked over to Jace who was cradled on the floor. Jace whimpered as his eyes met mine, showing the pain he was in. The desperate feeling to help was swirling my insides, drowning me with the fact that I physically couldn’t do anything.

The cold look reflected on Ranveer’s face made me shiver. His knuckles were pale and tightly closed under the burning flames shrouding his fist. His facial expression changed to an inhuman smirk. I couldn’t miss the evil glint in his dark eyes; his scent finally released around me.

It was the smell of blood.

As soon as Jace was fully up, he sprang forwards, but Ranveer was too fast and slammed him down again. Jace gasped for air, hyperventilating.

“STOP!” I yelled, gritting my teeth but obviously he didn’t listen. I struggled under the grasp of the two men. In the end, I was only 12 and two grown men were holding me down with their mana. I felt useless as I watched Ranveer crush Jace’s face, left hooking him unconscious.

Jace dropped to the ground, looking at me as his eyes flickered off.

“NO! JACE GET UP!” I screamed and as I did, the mana around us changed into something cold and dark. Ranveer looked as confused as I was.

Jace’s eyes opened again, glaring into mine before his eyes rolled back, turning completely white. Plain white. The heels of his feet lifted him back up with force and a wave of energy flushed through the air, sending Ranveer stumbling backwards.

“What the-” Ranveer stopped mid sentence as he noticed Jace’s stance. He was definitely unconscious. So how was he fighting?

Jace tilted his head, the atmosphere shaking at his every move. His jaw was clenched and the traces of self conscience were gone. The way his shoulders were relaxed confidently, added to his deadly aura. The veins on his forehead popped out as he plainly glared at Ranveer but that spoke volumes for itself. Ranveer pissed off the real Jace. The Jace nobody wanted to see.

“Jace.” I called out to him but he didn’t flinch nor react. His blank eyes were fixed on Ranveer.

“AGHHHH!” Ranveer ran forwards faster than my eyes could catch. Jace stood still, only moving his shoulder to dodge the attack. His foot slid under Ranveer, knocking him down onto the floor.

Jace moved like he was drunk or on something strong. He stumbled a bit before turning to face Ranveer.

Just like he said, water spurts shot out of his fingertips but it was different. The tiny water spurts merged together, turning into a big water ball. Ranveer looked at Jace in shock as the water formed into a black mamba.

Ranveer stood up and as soon as he did, the snake engulfed him. I watched as he struggled in the water snake’s stomach. I guess the guy feared water. The irony.

Ranveer let out an outburst of fire, exploding the water snake. Jace walked drunkenly upwards into the air, water spitting under his feet as he did so. Ranveer followed, drained from energy as he kicked up fire under his feet like those jet shoes in the movies. Jace raised both of his hands and the ground started to violently shake from underneath.

His hand pointed to the fire around me and a rush of water shot out of his palms, cooling down the fire and knocking the guards and I backwards.

My head hit the ground and an electric shock of pain emitted in my every nerve cell. The hot feeling of blood dripping down the side of my head and pooling out into a puddle on the floor left me dizzy.

The last thing I saw was a forbidden war. A large spurge of water against the raging fire. The two fought for dominance as they met, receding backwards. Jace was being pushed backwards by the energy.

Ranveer was still winning. Who was he?

My eyes started to fail me. No. No. Stay awake. My eyelids started to feel heavy and the last thing I could catch was Jace falling from the sky, his body hitting the floor with a thud. My eyes shut and the distant footsteps of Ranveer started to get louder. I felt myself being lifted off of the floor.

No. Jace. Zeref. I winced trying to keep myself from falling into the darkness.

NO!