3 Chapter 2

Lyra de Viora Amore stood on the balcony of her chambers in the Vazgard Academy, fiery waves of hair fluttering in the cool night breeze.

Her eyes, a mesmerizing deed ocean blue, were lost in thought as they stared into the horizon where the snow-capped mountains cut the sky like a serrated blade. Hanging above them, the smallest of Elonaria's three moons began it's nightly descent.

A few minutes ago, a great lightning had occurred somewhere in the forbidden areas of the mountains. The strike was so strong that it shook the ground, startling her from her sleep.

'something powerful must be over there' she whispered.

Whatever it was, she vowed to find it even if it meant going to that forsaken place. She had to get stronger if she was to even have a chance of escaping from her forced engagement with the kingdom's third prince.

Just the thought of marriage made her insides burn with rage. Her fingers clutched the marble railing, knuckles turning white as the pressure built within them.

Ever since her parents' death, her uncle took over as family head, and with the pretence of being her guardian, he grabbed all the family assets for himself. His greed soon made the family decline from it's peak, when it was considered as one of the great families in the kingdom, to only a shell of it's glory.

In an attempt to stop it from totally collapsing, her uncle made a deal with the third prince, a well known pervert who only saw women as tools for his pleasures, to exchange her hand in marriage for a large amount of gold.

She would have already been sullied had it not been for Emyrilda, headmaster of the best magic Academy in the kingdom, Vazgard Academy, who intervened saying that 12 years old was too young for a girl to be married.

The prince grudgingly left with a promise to be back for her soon. Emyrilda took her under her wing and brought her to the academy, where she had been staying and learning ever since. Now, four years have past and though she had grown powerful, she was still not strong enough to take on the royal family. After all, they were the most powerful family. If only she were a Divine Master... or... perhaps... a Heavenly master

Brushing those thoughts aside, she put on her fighting uniform, and grabbed her nappier from it's resting spot, under her bed, where it lay sheathed, awaiting for it's master further adventures.

She walked to the far end of her chambers, onto the balcony again where she leapt through, landing lightly on the academy ground, three stories below, thanks to her enhanced muscles. She then ducked into the shadows and scanned the area. She took a deep breath after finding nothing out of the ordinary. Steeling herself, she made her way into the night to her destination.

*****

Lyra trudged through the dark woods. Glancing up, the could see the shape of the mountain towering above her. Only a couple of minutes and she would be there.

Suddenly a rustling of leaves drew her attention.

She quickly unsheathed her sword and let a stream of mana flow from her core through her channels into her hand where she weaved it into one of her cryptic arts, 'mutilate'.

Cryptic arts were techniques on how one could weave mana to achieve a specific result. Her 'mutilate', was one of the most powerful techniques in her arsenal.

Lyra's eyes scanned through the forest around her, the dim red glow on her hand doing little to ease her fears. One of the reasons she took of in the night was to avoid an encounter with any beast or wilding. The leaves of the tree near her shook, then parted to reveal a pair of yellow glittering eyes.

The eyes blinked twice, then burst through the leaves with an accusatory peep.

Lyra's heart skipped a bit then relaxed after a green cat came into view. Slowly, the cat's coat begun to turn brown, matching the color of the ground.

"A charantian shorthair" Lyra muttered as she released the mana set to power her cryptic art, and let it rush back to her core making her shoulders slump. Their was only one person who owned this unique breed of a cat in the entire academy.

"Come out Elyssa, I know you are there."

A moment later, her best friend came out from the bushes, looking like a scarecrow. Small branches and leaves, stuck onto her hair making her look Iike she had just been electrocuted. Despite her serious expression, Lyra couldn't stop a grin from plastering her face for a few seconds.

" That blasted cat! It had one job, one job I tell you, and it still failed. Don't let me catch you or am gonna skin you alive! " Elyssa yelled, waving her finger at the cat who returned her gaze with big innocent eyes. Slowly, she turned to look at Lyra only to meet a pair of angry eyes, her smile having already disappeared from her face.

" Hey sis, " Elyssa said, twisting her mouth into a curved smile.

"Don't you dare hey sis. I need a full detailed explanation of what you are doing here." Lyra fumed as she crossed her arms over her *swollen chest.

"Fine,. I get it, you are angry at me for following you. But what else did you want me to do when I saw you jumping from your balcony, fully armored and running away to who knows where. It was obvious that you were hiding something from. I thought you were a mission to kill all men. I would have joined you if you had asked, but you just lied. "

" That is not true. I never lied. I just... excluded. "

" Exactly! That's what you always do. You are always in persuit of power and I know you have a good reason for it but you exclude me. We never do that. "

A rush of guilt pushed through Lyra and she hung her head. Elyssa was right. Her hate for men and dream of joining the Heavenly ones, not for glory but just for the sake of being truly free, always left her lonely. But they were friends, no, they were more than friends, they were sisters though not bound by blood, but bound by something only a few could understand.

"Am sorry."

Her heavy words, held no deceit. She had hurt one of the few important people in her life and she genuinely sorry. In a moment, Elyssa nodded, a wry smile curving her lips making Lyra release her breath, unaware that she had been holding it the entire time.

"Come here and give me a hug." She whispered to Lyra.

"Gruff! Dumb... humans... ver.y...dumb" Came an inhuman growl behind the girls.

Lyra snapped her eyes back to see a giant black beast with six blood-red eyes staring down at them. It's massive lips curled back to reveal a mouth full of enormous sharp fangs.

A Rank 3 Feral Maaka!