Against Deesh's recommendation, they traveled along the main merchant's road allowing them to quickly arrived at Ehmead Hill. Though when they got there Karol was looking up for something. Aile tried to find what it was Karol was looking for. "What is it, Karol? Is there a flying monster we need to be vigilant for in this area?"

"Huh? Oh, well, there was a barrier here the last time I came through but now it's gone."

Yuri looked to the dirt road imprinted by wagon wheels and foot traffic, "Sort of a waste to have a barrier in a place with no people, if you ask me."

Shadow nodded, "Maybe someone influential got it set up? Keeping his merchandise safe?"

Rita wasn't so certain, "Are you sure you aren't mistaken? I'm pretty familiar with the barrier locations, but here?"

Karol seemed rather confident, even standing up to Rita, "You just haven't heard about this one. Nan told me it was only put here recently."

Estelle's mind finally seemed to have drifted away from the distress caused by the nearby knights as she asked him the obvious question, "Who is Nan, Karol?"

"Huh…? Uh, she's um… You know, she's just a friend from my guild." Karol didn't seem like he wanted to talk any more about her as he pointed ahead, "I-I'm gonna go see if I can find anything out!"

Rita started heading off on her own as well, "I think I'll have a look myself."

"All right, never mind us, guys." Yuri looked over to Aile, "I'm not gonna go look for them if they get lost."

Estelle smirked to Yuri, "Well, then, shall we?"

It didn't take long for Rita to draw all sorts of attention as she approached the wrecked barrier blastia. "Hey, hey! No outsiders allowed!"

Rita batted the man away from her person, "Let me through! I'm Rita Mordio of the Imperial Blastia Research Laboratory."

Even after being hit by her, the man backed up more, "Oh, you're a mage from Aspio? Excuse me!" Rita moved quickly to examine the destroyed remains, much to the man's worry, "Oh, but you can't just do as you please! Let me go and ask the—"

Yuri looked to Estelle, "Huh, I could use some of her attitude."

"I think you have plenty already…"

Karol was partly out of breath as he returned to the others, but he seemed too excited to even care, "Hey! Listen to this! It was like bam! A spear went thunk! The blastia went bang! And he flew off into the sky like whoosh!"

"Who…?"

"…What…?"

"…How…huh?"

Aile, Yuri, and Shadow looked to each other in confusion before Karol took a breath to explain, "Someone riding a flying dragon, threw a giant spear at the blastia. And then just flew off!"

"A human riding a dragon? No way."

Deesh wasn't as surprised, "Why not? I've done it a few times," quietly muttering to herself, "Mostly against the dragon's will…"

Aile seemed conflicted about something as well, though she was keeping quiet for the moment as Estelle seemed enamored by the thought, "I've never heard of anything like that before."

"That's what I thought too, but a bunch of people here saw it happen!" Karol only seemed to get more excited now, "They say it was a 'dragon rider'."

"A dragon rider… Hmmm. Well, the world's just full of surprises."

Before they could talk more about this mysterious dragon rider's attack, knights rushed the area, catching Yuri's attention before a familiar voice started to yell, "Hey! What do you think you're doing?! Let me go!"

Aile wasn't sure how to deal with this situation that was only building now, "She's certainly passionate…"

Shadow nodded, "Kind of reminds me of a few Warlocks I know who would stop to study something in the middle of a firefight."

Rita continued yelling at everyone while struggled in the arms of a knight. "Something is definitely strange with this blastia formula!"

The man adjusted his glasses, "There's nothing strange at all. Perhaps you are…"

"Just who do you think I am!?"

"I'm well aware of who you are. The famed genius mage, correct? But surely there are some formulas that even you aren't familiar with!"

Rita freed one arm, pointing at the smashed blastia, "You can't use a weird formula like this! Think of the poor blastia!"

Karol quickly tried to distract them, "Fire! Hey, fiiiiire!"

The knights looked around, "What's with that kid?"

"A fire? I don't hear anything or smell anything…"

Deesh walked over, "Karol, if you wanted a fire," she lifted one of her hands into the air as a ball of flames started to form, "all you had to do was ask." Deesh took a deep breath before shouting, "Yol…Toor…Shul!" releasing flames from her very maw before throwing the fireball in her hand to spread the flames in different locations.

Some of the knights ran to put out the fire or to cut down the brush before it spread further the remaining knights attempted to follow after Deesh. Yuri used the distraction to help Rita, rushing to the knight still holding her and knocking him out. "It's now or never…"

They quickly ran into the woods away from the flames to avoid any more attention that Deesh hadn't grabbed. Deesh herself had jumped into the flames in the opposite direction of the others to lead the knights away.

After getting considerable distance from the main road, Yuri stopped the group as he looked back, "This should be far enough."

Shadow was patting Karol's head, "Next time you want to create a distraction, talk to us first. Deesh will go to extreme when needed."

Estelle was just trying to catch her breath from the sudden exercise, "Rita, you should really think more before you act!"

Rita was exhausted too, though she was doing her best to overcome it, "…That barrier blastia was just so strange, I couldn't help myself…"

"Strange?" Aile glanced to one of her handheld devices before turning to Rita, "Was there something wrong with it?"

This discussion on blastia seemed to have Rita completely forget about her fatigue, "I have a feeling that may be an understatement."

Yuri wasn't about to go grasping at such wild guesses now, "Well, our hands are already full as it is, so could you please keep us out of it?"

Rita turned away, "…It doesn't concern you, regardless."

Karol had collapsed onto the ground, though he was looking back to the smoke still rising, "What is she…?"

Rustling from one of the nearby bushes had Repede ready to attack, but Strider looked happy, wagging her stub of a tail as she was about to pounce on what was to come. Estelle felt like her heart stopped for a moment, "…Ack, Deesh…don't frighten us like that!"

Deesh didn't even acknowledge Estelle, instead turning to Yuri. "Your friend Leblanc is a persistent one. Meaning the assassins broke away from the battle." Deesh turned away from them, examining the dirt path, "We should continue before the knights finish putting out the flames."

"Right." Estelle had gotten lost by the distorted lights from the trees, "Which way were we supposed to go, again?"

Karol looked up, "Let's see, as the crow flies…"

Shadow turned, "We head west. So, this way."

Rita was a bit concerned, "Isn't this a beast trail? Can we really go through here?"

Yuri didn't see another way, "We'll go as far as we can go, at least. I don't want to get captured again."

Aile looked around the forest, "And keep our eyes out for beasts, too."

"Meh," Yuri smirked as he pointed, "What are one or two monsters to the brave Captain Karol?"

"Y-Yeah, that's right!" Karol started twiddling his fingers, "Though if the barrier were up, we wouldn't have to worry about monsters at all…"

Rita started to stomp her feet, "I can't stand it! Why does some idiot have to go around breaking blastia and making our lives difficult?!"

Deesh snarled, "And if you want every predator within a hundred meters to come investigate then please continue to shout. In the meantime, I plan to follow this game trail until it gets me back to the proper path we need to travel."

Along the path Deesh stopped the group when she found oddly large red buds close to the path. Aile looked at the plant, "Almost reminds me of the plant-like Mechaniloids I used to cut down. But given how vibrant it is means it has a nasty little surprise."

Estelle soon recognized the plant, reciting what she knew, "Inhaling biliybally leaf pollen can lead to vertigo and strong feelings of exhaustion."

"I see, usable by both predators and prey to hinder the other."

Rita got a devilish grin as she slowly moved behind Karol and 'accidently' pushed him into one of the plants. "Hey, what're you—"

"Whoops, sorry!"

Estelle quickly rushed to Karol's aid, "Karol, are you okay?!" She quickly tried to use her healing magic but to no avail.

It wasn't too hard for the others to see what Rita was really doing as Yuri sarcastically asked, "You're interested in healing artes?"

Rita, "Nah… but I do have some questions for you!" pointing out Aile. "Specifically, about the armors and how you switch between them!"

After a few more attempts, Estelle stopped. "…It's no use. Healing artes don't work on this. We'll just have to wait until he recovers naturally."

Yuri took a closer look over an unresponsive Karol, "How long will that take?"

"Karol, be strong!" Estelle trying to cheer on their stunned diminutive friend.

Seeing how quickly Karol was stunned Deesh carefully collecting some of the pollen and plant. Aile sighed, seeing how Rita was exploiting this time, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to explain things while waiting for Karol. Though rewarding Rita with information after doing that to Karol just feels wrong."

Shadow grabbed Aile from behind, "It's not like it'll help her do her research. And you'll be helping us understand your limits and powers for battle."

"I suppose." She took out two of her devices, "These are Biometals. These two specifically are Model X and Model Z. Besides these two I have five others: H, F, L, P, and O. However, Model O is only used under the direst of conditions and on a limited time."

Estelle was now curious, "What makes Model O so dangerous?"

"Well, technically all of them could be dangerous for me. Since the Biometal I'm linked to is Model X and through him I can perform a Double Megamerge which allows me to tap into and utilize the other Biometals as if I was their Biomatch. Though it does put a heavier strain on me in return, so I try not to shift between them too rapidly if possible. But as for Model O, it holds an unfathomable level of hate and anger. It may be stronger than the others in terms of raw power but those emotions it contains are overbearing at the same time. So, if I have a need for its overwhelming power, I try to limit its usage to 5 minutes at most."

Yuri picked up on something from Aile's explanation, "So you view these Biometals like how Rita sees blastia?"

Aile smiled, "Unlike the blastia, the Biometals can talk back but only to those who are Biomatches like me, except of Model O that has no personification. Due to the technological differences, it'd be like trying to explain cyberspace or what a cyber-elf is. There's too much history and terminology that'd need explaining."

"Your devices contain powerful spirits who give you their powers and only commune with you." Everyone seemed rather amazed by Deesh's rather simplified yet decent example.

Shadow laughed, "Leave it to the most primitive of us to dumb it down so easily." Deesh seemed angry at that, though she didn't lash out as she was still carefully procuring more of the paralytic plant.

Sanguine lounged with a few deepstalkers laying on top of his back. "Happy now, Mora? You can definitely be assured the metal girl didn't come from us."

"You did spirit that Guardian from her world. You might have done something like that again."

"Have a bit more faith. That one was pulled because I thought I'd be fun given the parties I've been with her. Besides how do you know it's not Meridia pulling strings to 'protect' one of her worlds."

Hermaeus was slowly trying to access the world this stranger came from, finding a fractured plane with altered timelines interwoven. "You should know that Meridia is far more heavy-handed when dealing with problems. Especially when other Daedric Princes are involved."

Sanguine laughed, "You're right. She'd probably make some obnoxious proclamation and alter the weather declaring her champion or shouting for the world to know of her 'righteousness' long before her arrival."

"That not including the other dark elements that slipped in with the mechanical human."

"Dark elements? So I guess the summoning was more of a masking for something else." Sanguine thought for a second, "Sounds almost like something you would do."

"It is." Hermaeus already knew who pulled the human into these affairs, Mephala. Though what she gains from such machinations could only be speculated until she achieves her goals or clues are uncovered. However the bigger question had to be who was Mephala working with. While Mephala did scheme in such a roundabout way, however the manner to which the tools are being utilized were far from her norm.

"So, I'm assuming you'll want us to work and find out what the mortal knows?"

"That will be unnecessary. The mortal knows nothing. But she will be the key to understanding Mephala's plans. For now we wait. And if it seems necessary, we may intervene. Assuming Meridia doesn't act first."

"Think she'll make some grandiose statement to the little ones about it?"

"Even if she were, it could play to Mehpala's benefit and such a 'deviant' in her eye should not be allowed the upper hand. She will be vexed on her recourse. Especially given the effort to place a barrier to prevent use from direct interactions."

"Really? So, say if, one of us projected ourselves into the world, Meridia would be able to do nothing about it?"

"Even a simple projection would be difficult to maintain under such conditions. The work would be considerable even for just a few moments." While Sanguine debated the pros and cons of putting out so much effort, Hermaeus was already setting things up for himself to act should the need ever arise or an opportunity present itself. But he would need to be careful since it was doubtful if the feat could be done a second time without Meridia finding them.