Previously:

"!" everyone said, surprised. What was she…? They gasped in astonishment when she managed to smash the lock, and her shackles popped open.

"I got free…" Morgiana said, stepping out of them.

'She used the beasts' strong cage to break the lock…!' Fatima cried internally, shocked.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!" Faith said with a smirk while Hope marveled over how crazy strong Morgiana was as she straightened up and used her brute strength to pull apart the chain on her handcuffs so she could move more freely.

'Something tells me she would've been just fine even without us jumping in…' Hope thought, sweat-dropping.

"Just what are these kids… This habit of slaves… I can't stomach it…" said Fatima, gritting his teeth. The hyenas were too spooked to attack after Morgiana's display of strength, and the twins had already taken out a large fraction of the thieves using their martial arts, but he wasn't about to let those dirty brats get away with this! "All of those things for auction… take them out!" he ordered sternly.

Chapter 33: Miracle

'Thank goodness… her fever's dropped…' Morgiana thought, feeling Nadja's temperature as the little girl hugged her. "I broke the handcuffs too, so everything's fine. Let's leave here as soon as we can."

'Well, that shouldn't be too difficult since she also broke the lock on the cage door…' Hope thought glibly, pushing it open.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt y'all's little Kodak moment over there… but you might wanna take a look at that!" Faith said urgently, sweat-dropping, as she pointed at the approaching new danger.

"!" Hope and Nadja started when then saw the pack of huge saber-toothed tiger-like creatures and the flock of large vultures that were being driven towards them.

"The 'Maurenian Saber-Tooth Tiger' and the 'Namideian Condor', both are imported from the Dark Continent. These carnivores possess deadly poisons… be careful! If their beaks or tusks even graze you, you'll die!" Fatima explained with a sadistic smirk.

"Hiii…" the thieves squealed, paling with fright, as they realized how easily those freed condors could turn on them. "Uwaaa!!" They cried, fleeing for their lives. First they get their asses kicked by some absurdly strong girls, and now this!? "It isn't a joke, run!!"

''Uwaaa!' is right…' the twins thought as beads of nervous sweat slid down the sides of their faces while they stared at the formidable line of poisonous predators. This was probably the scariest thing they had ever faced so far in this world.

"O-Onee-chan…" Nadja sobbed, trembling, as she looked up at Morgiana. Morgiana reached out and gently squeezed her hand.

"Everything's absolutely fine." She reassured the little girl with a confident smile before looking at the twins. "Watch her for me, please." she told them as she let go of Nadja's hand and sprang forth at the stalking towards them.

"Ah, hey…!!" Hope shouted worriedly, about to follow, when Faith stopped her and shook her head with a smile.

"Don't worry, it's fine! I've fought that girl before, so I know. She's strong, stronger than anyone!" Faith said confidently. "She's totally got this in the bag!"

'That's right, it's fine.' Morgiana thought calmly as she fought. 'If you ask why… my legs are… my body is… more than anyone or anything… fast… sharp… and strong!'

"!" Hope gasped in amazement as she watched Morgiana defeat one beast after another with her bare hands, delivering swift and lethal kicks. "She's amazing…" Not even the condors in the sky were safe from her powerful reach. She was one of the champions of the Dark Continent. The strongest warriors, the 'Fanalis' Clan!

Fatima shuddered when Morgiana's sharp, red eyes met his, and he collapsed to his knees in shock.

"Hi…Hiii…" his fellow slave traders cried out in fear as she stalked towards them. Fatima grit his teeth in anger and frustration as cold sweat dripped down the side of his face and neck. The other two slave traders turned tail and ran away to save their own skin, leaving him behind, as they scattered like the cockroaches they were. They didn't get far, though. In a matter of minutes, Faith was on them like white on rice, and she made sure to pay them back thoroughly for everything they had been put through over the past week, leaving Fatima to Morgiana. Hope sweat-dropped and covered Nadja's eyes to shield the little girl from having to witness any further violence, figuring she had been traumatized enough already for one day.

"… I give up." Fatima said reluctantly without apology. "From the view point of a slave dealer, to keep an injured slave is a mistake. No point in getting killed because of that…"

"…" Morgiana stared down at him with an extremely unimpressed look on her face.

"Don't kill me." He told her. "If you kill me, it would only show how much you hate me. Slave hunting has been carried out by many different ethnic groups. Those that fell to the lowest class sold their children, and a lot was covered up… Just like you, miserable slaves… they were profitable. That…"

WHAM!!

Fatima flinched when Morgiana, who had begun to tremble with suppressed rage suddenly stomped her foot against the ground with enough force to create a small crater.

"So what?" Hope said sternly with a frown. "Wrong is wrong, even if everyone's doing it. You really think you can take away someone's dignity as a human being just by changing what you call them? We're all born free, with the same inherent rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It doesn't matter how rich or poor they are, or how many talents they do or don't have. We were all created to be equally important. No one's worth more or less than anyone else. It's just ridiculous to think you could arbitrarily decide you own another person like that! We're all 'people', and we deserve to be treated as such. And no amount of chains is ever gonna change that!" she finished strongly, tightening her grip on Nadja's shoulders slightly as she, too, trembled with anger. "Which is why… we're all gonna walk out of here, including the others who are still being held in the prison. We're taking them with us too." Fatima grit his teeth again as he narrowed his eyes.

"You're the ridiculous one...!" he muttered darkly under his breath with his face cast partially in shadow.

"…" Morgiana glanced back at her for a moment out the corner of her eye before focusing her attention on Fatima again. "Give us the keys." She told him, holding out her hand.

"What?" Fatima said incredulously.

"The key to the prison." Morgiana said coolly. "Like she said, we're going to free the other people captured from before!"

"… What… you're really going through with that pitiful plan?" he asked through gritted teeth as his scowl deepened, glaring up at them, as he clenched his fists. "What a slave-like habit!" he shouted angrily at them. "Using your owner's pity!" Hope narrowed her eyes at him as both girls frowned.

"I am no longer… a slave!" Morgiana stated determinedly, furrowing her brow. That part of her life was over now, and she was never going back. Never again.

"That's right." Hope agreed firmly. "After all, you can't own something that never belonged to you in the first place… We belong only to ourselves!"

Powerless against them on his own, Fatima had no choice but to hand over the keys.

"…What… I'll make sure to kill you…" he cursed lowly under his breath, punching the ground, and trembling with frustration and humiliation as they turned their backs on him and walked away. Slave merchant Fatima, that was how he met those slaves. With a grudge against his own owner, during a one-day journey he killed them, and has since then lived under the identity of a slave trader. However, he never knew that he would meet Morgiana and the twins…

"Hey, Faith! Faith!!" Hope called out to her sister, who was still beating on the other slave traders. "Come on, I think you've proved your point. Anymore, and you really will kill them…" she chided her, sweat-dropping.

"Okay…" Faith said with a reluctant sigh, brushing her hands off as she straightened up and came over to join them. "Don't ever let me catch you doing this shit again, got it!? I'm watching you!" she told the thieves sternly as a parting shot, giving them the evil eye over her shoulder as they went to free the Aladdin and others.

"The key doesn't fit." Nadja said, pointing out the obvious to the older girls when it failed to open the door to the prison for them.

"… It seems so." Morgiana said calmly, staring at the locked door, while twins sweat-dropping, hoping they hadn't messed up the lock when they jimmied it open earlier.

"What should we do?" Nadja asked worriedly.

"It's fine. Please stand back." Morgiana told her and the twins as she got into position to kick the door in. What she was about to do was obvious to Faith and Hope, but it still came as a bit of a surprise when the force from her kick completely obliterated the four-foot thick solid wooden door. "During times like this, it's fine to break down the door."

'Then, the key wasn't needed…' Hope and Nadja thought, sweat-dropping, while Faith stared at Morgiana with sparkling eyes of admiration for the way she had totally destroyed that door like a boss without even breaking a sweat.

"You have got to teach me that!" Faith told her with a grin.

"Father… Mother…" Nadja called out as they stood in the open doorway of the dark prison.

"Aladdin! We're back!" Faith and Hope called.

"Wow, they really did it!!" the people inside exclaimed when they saw that the twins had returned, though they didn't recognize the other girls they had with them.

"Yeah~! Welcome back!" Aladdin said brightly, waving at them from the back.

"…?" Morgiana said, taken aback when she recognized him. "What… you… can't be…!?"

"?" the twins said, wondering why she suddenly looked so shocked.

"Onee-san…? Aren't you that onee-san from back then?" Aladdin asked, surprised.

"Yep, it's the real deal!" Faith said with a grin. "She helped us take down the bad guys!"

"Well, more like we helped her… She did most of the heavy lifting, after all." Hope said wryly. She doubted they could have escaped those poisonous beasts unscathed without her.

"What's wrong, Aladdin?" one of their fellow captured caravan members asked.

"You guys know her?" another asked curiously.

"Yep!" Aladdin answered brightly. "See, from that story we told you before, about that strong girl Faith and I met in that dungeon."

'Oh, so that's their connection...' Hope thought, remembering how her sister had mentioned something about having fought the other girl before.

"I see, so this is that nee-chan… I've got to give her credit, she broke the door down…"

"But, why is she here?"

"That's a good question." Said Faith as they all stared curiously at Morgiana.

"… That is…" Morgiana started to explain a bit awkwardly, when they heard a shout echo from down the hall. "Anyway, everyone let's escape before the thieves notice!"

"Well, I think they've already noticed, but good point!" agreed Hope. They could chat later. Right now their first priority should be to escape.

"Escape? It's impossible with our hands and feet like this." Said one of the caravan guys, shaking his shackles.

"What, did you already forget why we snuck out in the first place?" Faith said dubiously, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Don't worry. I have the keys to your shackles…" Morgiana said with a straight face, holding up the bag of keys they had confiscated from Fatima. "They're most likely somewhere in this bag."

"Hah, good luck finding them!" Faith said, sweat-dropping, as she peered at the disorganized mess inside of it.

Fortunately, they were actually able to figure out which keys went with which shackles rather quickly. While the twins took care of that, Morgiana helped Nadja look for her parents.

"…" Morgiana smiled as she watched the small family's tearful reunion.

"In any case, I'm surprised we met again in this type of place, onee-chan!" Aladdin said cheerfully while his shackles were being unlocked for him.

"Yes… That is… I'm glad you seem well." Said Morgiana. "I didn't see you after coming out of the seventh dungeon, so I was worried…"

"Yep, a lot of stuff happened~"

"Umm… you seem like a strong person, so how did those thieves manage to capture you? What happened to that other girl you were with?" she asked curiously.

"Huh? You mean Faith? That's her over there with her sister." Aladdin said, pointing over at the twins.

"Eh!?" Morgiana said, taken aback. Which one? They looked exactly alike! She totally hadn't realized… both of them looked so different from the ginger-haired girl she remembered with their hair dyed and dressed in the Kouga Clan's clothing.

"As for how I got captured…" Aladdin continued to explain. "Huge rocks suddenly came tumbling down on the caravan's cart… at that moment, I blacked out, and when I came to, my friends and I had been captured. Faith and Hope could have gotten away, but they came back for me. I couldn't be useful, and I couldn't even borrow everyone's power, either…" Even though the twins had told him not worry about it, it still bugged him that he couldn't help.

"... 'Everyone'…?" Morgiana asked, wondering what he was talking about.

"Over here!" they heard shout from down the tunnel.

"Hurry up!" another sounded closer.

"It's the thieves!" some of the people standing lookout cried.

"They stole the slaves' keys!? If they escape it'll be a huge loss!" the head thief shouted. "Absolutely do not let them escape! Capture them!" he ordered sternly.

"Yes!" his brothers answered dutifully as they ran with the other remaining thieves, carrying many small bundles of herbs. They quickly lit the bundles and tossed them down into the tunnel leading to the prison.

"Close up the exit." The head thief ordered. "Fortunately, this is the only entrance to the prison… and, by burning these herbal plants, we can fill the basement with a paralyzing smoke. The slaves will black out, and then we'll capture them. Hey, freakishly strong twins and Fanalis—or should I call you monster—if you haven't left yet, we'll kill you!" he shouted at the girls through the crack as his men closed the door, shutting everyone inside with the burning herbs.

"This is bad!" one of the men cried as everyone tried to cover their mouths and breath as possible.

"…" Morgiana furrowed her brow. 'If I'm captured again, I won't be able to save everyone…!' she thought worried as her eyes began to tear up from the sting of the smoke.

"What should we do!?" Nadja's mother cried anxiously.

"Ah! Aladdin, look who we found hiding with the keys!!" Faith said, suddenly, holding up Ugo's flute with a triumphant grin.

"Ah!" Aladdin gasped excitedly. Hope smirked.

"If the path is blocked, then we'll just make a new one, right?" she said.

"Right!" Aladdin said with a smile as they handed over the flute, happy to be of use again.

Meanwhile, a large force was galloping towards the thieves' fortress under the hot desert sun. Most of the band of rugged mercenaries was grim and silent as they urged their camels forward.

"I'm indebted to you. I was arrested for the sake of my comrades for employing those tactics… " The scar-faced boss told Sahsa's father as they rode alongside each other. After his caravan leader had given up on rescuing the others despite the twin's success in sending back his little furry friend with directions to the thieves' hideout strapped to his back, he had tried a very desperate and less than scrupulous move that had almost ended in disaster.

"Your friend's caravan abandoned you, huh? However, now your companion is this armed force, which could also be considered your enemy… whether or not that is your wish is another thing though…" said Sahsa's father. "Hey, Leila! Sahsa!" he shouted back at the girls, who were following them on their own camel. "I told you to wait at the inn!" he scolded them, concerned for their safety.

"As if Morgiana would just leave without saying a word! Sorry, but, for a comrade, I won't be scared off by those thieves!" Leila yelled back determinedly. 'Everyone… Morgiana… please, somehow be all right!' she thought earnestly.

"What…?" The men said, squinting, when they realized they could see people moving on the ground in the distance. "Someone came out from the fortress…?"

"!!" Sahsa's father gasped when the fleeing people rushed closer. "Aren't you a thief!!" The men looked really shady, but they were so frightened of whatever they were running from that they had actually begun to shed tears.

"Help us, please help us!!" the thieves cried.

"Wh-What's wrong with them?" Sahsa's father asked, sweat-dropping.

"Blue…" one of the thieves said with a shudder.

"Blue?" Leila asked, also sweat-dropping.

"Gia—It's a giant!" they man cried, just as Aladdin and Ugo climbed up over the ridge behind them. Ugo was still clutching some unconscious thieves in his huge fist.

"HYAAAAAAAA!!" the remaining thieves screamed in horror when they saw them. "Monster! Just what is that thing!?" they cried as they ran for their lives.

"… Hey…" Leila said as she, Sahsa, Sasha's father, and the boss just stood there, staring up at the blue giant. "Th-That is…"

"Yeah…" Sahsa said, sweat-dropping. "Uhm…" There could only be one person responsible for this…