"Mia, please! You'll need our help!"

"There's no time! I must get to Imil right away!"

Before she could go out the door of the inn, Isaac intruded in on her path and

refused to budge.

"Mia, Ivan's just told me of the news. We can go there together and take on

whoever this antagonist is... your pain is our pain."

Finally, Mia's panicked mind settled and soon she began to realize that by

running off to Imil was not such a great idea, and after all, they had the Lemurian boat in

the river nearby, which could fly to the town.

"Where's Piers?" Mia asked, "We need to use his ship and get there quickly!"

"I'm one step ahead of you Mia!" Garet grinned, coming down the stairs, "I got

the Teleport Lapis, so we can be there instantly!"

As the words came out of his mouth, Garet took out a black prism from his pocket

and gave it to his fellow adept.

"Well, someone's a little too cheery..." Isaac mumbled.

"Listen, we can talk about that later," Garet snapped unusually, "Right now Mia's

town is in trouble, and that's our main priority."

Without a moment to lose, Garet, Mia, Isaac, Ivan, and Sheba braced themselves

to use the teleport lapis, but then they saw Felix, Jenna, and Piers finally join their group.

"Great, we're all here." Isaac said, "Let's move out!"

And so, Mia activated the lapis and after brief flashes of light, the group of adepts

vanished before the very eyes of the townspeople around them.
Seconds later, they were all on the outskirts of Imil, but by what they had seen,

they were already too late. Houses were burning with black fire, and not a person was in

sight. Mia collapsed onto her knees, shattered by the nightmare she wished she could

prevent from happening. Jenna sat down alongside her and tried to soothe the pains that

Mia was feeling, but it was no use as she continued to mourn her people's demises.

"Well, there's no use crying here about nothing but black fire," Garet snorted,

getting menacing glances back by Isaac and Piers, "...I'm sorry, Mia, but we don't know

what's happened until we go into town, so let's check Imil out."

"Garet, just go already if you're so anxious!" Jenna yelled back, immediately

returning back her attention of Mia.

Obviously hurt, Garet pretended to ignore his crush's remark and charged into the

town, quickly followed by the others. Ivan stared at the burning homes and could not

believe that all that he and Sheba had foreseen came true, and this time for the worse.

Felix and Isaac began to investigate the buildings, but they were all locked, and even

when they tried to kick down the doors, it was no use.

"Stand aside," Garet grunted as he hacked and slashed at the door that Isaac was

trying to get into, but his attempts too were in vain.

"There's only one way," Felix explained, "We must use psynergy."

Isaac's hands molded together a slab of stone and with little effort, the adept

threw the small boulder into the door, but to a surprise to everyone, the door did not

budge. One by one, each of the adepts gave their best shots at the same door, but the

psynergy had no effect whatsoever.

"There must a shield of some sort that blocks off psynergy as well," Piers

speculated, "But there must be a way to get inside! People are probably dying in there!"

Suddenly, a small ominous laugh was heard all around them, and it continued to

grow louder and louder. Arming themselves with their weapons, the adepts searched the

sky for the figure that was chuckling to himself.

"Don't be looking up there, you fools," a calm malicious voice hissed, "I

wouldn't be flying right over your heads, I'm much more craftier than that. You want to

know how to open the doors to save the people of Imil, do you? Ha, you will never break

the seal I have placed on the houses!"

"The voice is too familiar..." Felix whispered to the others.

"But it can't be him," Sheba replied back, "I thought the Wise One got rid of him

when he reached the top of Mount Aleph!"

"Oh, and how wrong you are," the malicious voice ranted on, seeming to know

every word of their conversation, "With this new found power, I will never die! I am the

superior adept here, so bow down to me!"

Immediately, Garet collapsed to the ground and struggled immensely to get up.

Soon after, Sheba and Ivan were laid out on the snow as well. However, the other three

did not succumb to the mysterious man's powers.

"Yes, very interesting," the voice said amusingly, "It is odd how the water adept

and you two manage to withstand my body crushing psynergy. But no matter, I will just

need to add a little more wood to the fire... YOU WILL BOW DOWN TO ME!"

A crack of thunder was heard above, supposedly caused by the building rage of

the evil invisible mage, and soon Piers fell down to the ground and could not get back up.

However, Felix and Isaac remained standing alongside each other, and they were just as

surprised as the mysterious figure.

"Damn the Wise One..." he continued, "Oh yes, I guess you have discovered

your reason for being here. What I have done to Imil was only a mere distraction for you

two to arrive, thus I can finally achieve what I desired since I was a little boy... the pure

power of the Golden Sun!"

Behind the two Earth adepts a growing black shadow appeared until finally a

hooded man appeared from his own shade. Still not noticing the enemy behind them,

Felix and Isaac stood there wondering who should make the next blow. Knowing his spot

would soon be revealed, the mage raised his hands and soon chunks of ice began to

tumble down from the sky upon his two prey. But before they could reach Isaac and

Felix, a wall of flames emerged from the earth and melted the icicles into harmless

flowing water.

"I knew I smelled a rat behind all this!" Jenna smirked as she charged at Alex

with her staff.

"So, you want to play too, hmm?" he chuckled, "Very well, you shall share your

brother's fate. Good bye, dear Jenna."

Before Jenna could get a good blow off of her opponent, a cylindrical block of ice

appeared on all sides of her, preventing her from moving. With the precious little time he

had, Felix rushed in and double slashed the man with the aid of his djinni Echo, quickly

followed by Isaac attacking with Flint. Their enemy crumpled to the ground and suddenly

the rest of the adepts were broken free of his gravity bind. Seeing Jenna frozen in the ice,

Garet immediately unleashed a fury of flames on the pillar and it began to thaw out. After

that matter was solved, they all focused their attention on the briefly fallen warrior, who

had yet to reveal his identity. As he regained his balance and stood up, his hood fell off,

and Mia was the first to realize who their evil adversary was.

"Alex!" Mia cried, "How can this be?"

"Oh dear Mia," Alex weakly smiled, "It is truly a great surprise to me that you are

here as well... I am truly sorry for what has happened here."

"You are lying through your crooked foul teeth!" Mia screamed, "How could you

do this to our own people? After all we did for you in the past... THIS is how you repay

us? What have you done?"

"You have misunderstood my motives, Mia," Alex said, "It will all be clear to

you once I have accomplished my new task. And besides, these are not our people."

"So there is something else about this soul stealing business!" Piers crossly said.

"I was about to kill two birds with one stone, you see," Alex explained, "First I

was here to add these pitiful people's energies to mine... but then all of you came along

before I was done...luckily, I will not need to go through this painstaking process of

going from town to town, stealing psynergy, now that Isaac and Felix are here! The Wise

One was correct to put a bit of the Golden Sun within you two, for he knew I would be

too strong, but now fate will take its course as I take from you what is rightfully mine!"

With a dash of brilliant speed, Alex ran at the group of adepts but none of them

received pain from their attacker.

"Yes..." Alex smiled satisfactorily, "My work is done here."

"What work?" Garet angrily asked, "All you did was some fake hocus pocus on

us, and look, we're not even hurt! Come on, I dare you to fight us! What, you afraid? You

think you're so high and mighty!"

"Oh, but I am," Alex said boastfully, "Thank you for your cooperation... now I

am off to tend to other matters. Until we meet again, adieu."

Garet leaped at the far more experienced mage, but all he attacked was the bare

cold earth. He had just vanished into thin air.

"Nice trick..." Garet snarled, "All right, we'll meet again soon, you mangy son of

a..."
"Ok, let's get to work, we need to help these people somehow!" Felix interrupted.

Without a moment to lose, the adepts spread out and tried to find a way into the

houses of Imil. Meanwhile, Mia stood stiff and speechless, pondering Alex's remarks...

what did he mean by "they are not our people?"