Celestial Saga: Exiled To Earth III 27 Stage Twenty-Seven: Freyja's Defea

The raging blizzard finally subsided. Freyja, Kirin, and Keon left the shack to meet with Alaric, who found his way back to the nearby, deserted village.

"I think I know the reason why we can't reach the phreinian hideout. Just like how the elves of Riyada concealed themselves, the phreinians are using some kind of spell to ward intruders off." The runemaster inferred. "The first thing we must do is to find its medium, and take it down."

"I can take it down, but finding it would be the challenge." Kirin said, "Alaric, can you find it?"

"I'll try. I am not an expert at this, but I have substantial knowledge on dowsing."

The runemaster conjured his aura and concentrated it on his hands. He put his palms up, and closed his eyes, trying to sense any slight irregularity in all directions. He sighed, and put his hands back down shaking his head.

"Should I help?" Freyja was about to conjure her guardians, but Alaric refused. "You're tired, aren't you? Leave this to me, I can manage. We just need to walk around more and I'm sure we can find something." He a.s.sured her.

"You get vulnerable doing that, right? Don't worry, we'll protect you." Kirin a.s.sured. "Thanks."

About two hours of walking around the area, and having Alaric sense aura irregularities, he finally caught something interesting. "It's here." Alaric opened his eyes, and pointed to what seemed to be empty s.p.a.ce. He smiled, and conjured a freezing spell, which immediately traced the barrier's contour. They gazed in awe, seeing Alaric's ice crystals wrap around and give form to a barrier they wouldn't have otherwise noticed. "There you go. That's quite the work to find though." Alaric sighed, stepping back for Kirin to do his job.

Kirin summoned his dark aura sword. With one, strong, slash, he sliced the barrier, creating a huge crack, and a strong surge of wind that escaped from inside. "We should be able to go in." Kirin said, dispelling his aura sword. "Let's go."

However, even before they could enter the broken barrier, sudden jets of violent wind started hurling the snow on the ground, and straight onto them. The four stood in defensive stances, especially after seeing a gigantic bird which they knew, belongs to a phreinian. "I've had enough of this s.h.i.+t!" Freyja conjured her celestial sword and charged at the bird that's flying relatively low. She jumped and managed to injure its foot, but it didn't stop the creature from flying.

"Wait! Freyja! Don't be reckless!" Kirin, Keon and Alaric had no other choice but to back her up. They charged at the giant bird all at once. Freyja summoned Avice, fled, and landed ontop of the phreinian beast, directly confronting two familiar-looking phreinians. "give me back Afra you b.i.t.c.hes!" She charged straight at them, calling the celestial rune blade, and managed to slash off the arm of one of them. However, just as when she thought she was winning, the rune blade suddenly vanished.

"Astrid! Astrid! What's happening!?" She called him, over and over, but all she could hear were his groans of pain. "Astrid! Come out!" The other phreinian smirked, and took a pitch black orb out. "ARGH!" Freyja suddenly lost her strength, she fell on her knees. It was exactly the same feeling when they took Afra away.

"Astrid! Avice!" She called, but they won't answer her. She could feel all her aura thinning around her body, vanis.h.i.+ng, along with her strength.

Freyja was in absolute confusion. She didn't know what's happening, but she knew she had to retreat. Looking down, she saw Keon and his flying rune beast. She was about to jump down, but even before she could, the phreinian summoned aura chains that bound the girl's legs together. "What is this!?" She struggled, confused how phreinian aura could even touch her. It was totally unheard of.

Freyja called her guardians over and over, but nothing happened. Her white aura, wouldn't even come out anymore.

"Do you like how it feels? To be a normal, helpless human." The phreinian asked, binding her even tighter. "No…. This is… impossible." Freyja s.h.i.+vered in fear, her heart pounding. "NO!"

"Freyja!" Kirin jumped towards the phrenians' beast, but his leap was far too short. The phreinian was using an illusion spell that distorts their apparent location. Kirin cursed.

As soon as they got Freyja, the phreinians fled fast, away from them, towards their base, hiding behind multiple layers of illusion-inducing barriers. Keon forced his rune beast to chase after them, while Kirin summoned aura daggers to hurl at them. But it's no use.

They followed them as fast as they could, only to end up lost in circles again.

"It was a trap…" Alaric said, falling onto his knees, unable to accept what just happened. "There were many layers of barriers surrounding their base!"

Kirin looked straight ahead, but it was all snow and grey. Not even a shadow of their base nor their friend, is visible.

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