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Slayers GD: Generation of the Dragon©

Book 3

A fan fiction by Behemel

The train of alchemic equations only worked to add to the migraine I had developed already. Bent over my alchemy textbook and notes, I listened as Master Krots lectured us and wrote mathematic procedures on the board.

Fighting a Demon Beast would be better than this.

It was a typical Wednesday morning as I was at the mental mercy of out teacher. Along with my other classmates, we all sat and took notes down. Just as I said, another typical day in the Saillune sorcery academy, taught by our favored werewolf teacher, Master Krots.

Despite the routine of events, my life here during the past couple months had become so complicated. I, Zane Cosmon have been attacked by an assassin werewolf, a demon known as a Mazoku, and a giant monster beetle that threatened the city. And worse of all, it was all to somehow capture me.

You see, I have this hidden power. One that I only recently discovered. In the past, I had a history of accidents where my attack spells had gone... array. One time I accidentally blew up the alchemy lab with just a small fireball spell. My magic somehow is stronger that normal when this power kicks in. Anyway, whatever this power is, the guys out to get me sure want it. According to what Gigaros, the demon who confronted me said, that this power is related to the gods.

Since then, I've been researching everything I could about the gods and possible powers they would bestow upon humans. To my luck I've found zilch! So here I am. At the same time in my alchemy class, I'm juggling my note-taking and my personal research. Okay... I know I shouldn't be doing it, but with assassin beast-men and demonic forces after my butt, I wasn't going to take any chances. Besides, for a skilled sorcerer such as I am, you could never be too well prepared.

"Pssst!" a voice whispered from next to me. "Your not suppose to be doing other work in class, Zane."

I rolled my eyes as I knew who it was. Sitting at the desk next to me was Cassandra, the overly-cheery, goody-too-shoes, highest ranked student of the class. She too had been involved with my problems ever since this whole mess started. With her help despite her annoyingness, we were able to fraught the evil plans thrown at us. Perky classmate by day, valiant justice-obsessed Hero of Justice by night.

In short, she was a pain in the butt.

With a groan I leaned towards her, keeping my eyes on Master Krots while his back was to us. "Stop pestering me. I know," I hissed a whisper back to her. "I'm doing some research about that power that Gigaros mentioned."

Cassandra leaned towards me as I did to her to talk. "What exactly are you looking for?" she asked quietly.

"A way for me to harness this power so I can use it to stop whoever's after me. I've told you this," I hissed at her.

"And did you find anything yet?" Cassandra asked hopefully.

All getting back to my seat, I shook my head solemnly. With that, Cassandra quickly pulled herself back to her desk as Master Krots turned to the class. I grounded my elbows to the desk over my papers in deep thought, Master Krots words deaf to me as I struggled to understand the book before me about the gods.

It spoke of Ceiphied the dragon god, who fought the Dark Lord Shabranigdo in the war of the gods and the demons. Ceiphied imprisoned the horrible Dark lord by splitting him into seven parts and then sealed them somewhere on our world. From him, Ceiphied created the four dragon gods: The Fire Dragon King, the Water Dragon King, the Wind Dragon King, and the Earth Dragon King. However, I knew all of this already. Generally I was spinning my wheels trying to find something new about the gods.

A heavy sigh escaped me as I looked at a drawing of the four Dragon Kings surrounding Ceiphied, depicting what they would have looked like. "I don't get it..." I sighed as I stared at the golden picture of Ceiphied.

"The book before you or my lesson, Mr. Cosmon?" a deep voice asked from near by.

I felt my body stiffen as I finally became aware of a shadow that had cast over my desk. Hesitantly turning, I looked to who stood there. Looking down at me with his arms crossed against his ruby red robe was my werewolf teacher Master Krots. He leered down at me crossly as surprised showed on my face.

"Master Krots!" I shouted in surprise.

"Off in la-la land I see?" Master Krots asked in a toying manner. He looked at me with his wolfish eyes. It was as if he was staring right through you when you did something wrong. I hated that! "What do you have there, Zane?" he asked as he saw the book about the gods across my alchemy notes.

My body tensed as I realized I was so caught. "Uh, nothing sir!" I answered quickly and closed the book. "Just White Magic studies!"

"White Magic studies? Really?" Master Krots asked in a sarcastic reply. I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment under his sly interrogation, right in the middle of class. "Tell me Zane, where are you now?" Krots asked me, a slight smile on his mussel.

"Alchemy class," I answered him.

"And what should you be studying in Alchemy class?"

"Alchemy,"

"Very good," Master Krots said and gave me a playful pat on the head. "You've learned your first lesson today." With his comment, giggles and laughs sparked all around the classroom. I felt myself turn so red I might have passed as a tomato. Another weary sigh came out as my headache went up a notch.

"I'll just hold on to this until the end of class," Master Krots said as he picked up the book and tucked it under his arm.

I wearily lowered my head and arms onto the desk. "Yes, sir," I replied as he walked back towards the front of the room.

Returning to the front of the class, Master Krots tossed my book onto his desk and faced everyone. So embarrassed I felt like fireballing myself, I forced myself to pay attention this time. "Okay class, the equation we have just finished is an example of primary spell energy," he explained. Obviously, I had missed it. "Now this flow of energy represents what the body contains. You must remember that this flow is different for everyone. This in turn is what we call ones magical capacity."

Been there. Knew that.

"However this flow, unlike the equation, isn't set in stone," Master Krots continued, "Over several years, sorcerers have sought out ways to amplify ones magical capacity. As some of you are well aware, such studies have advanced since two hundred years ago. This kind of addition to one's natural capacity can allow very powerful effects. Using this process, one would be able raise his or her magical capacity, allowing to cast more advance spells, as well as amplify the spell's strength."

Raising magical capacity..? Amplified spells..?

Surprise struck me and I sat up in attention.

It just occurred to me thanks to Master Krots what this hidden power did. It amplified my spells. Somehow that power worked to make my spells insanely stronger. I couldn't believe I didn't figure it out sooner. The first time it happened was when Alpha, the werewolf ninja who started this whole mess, attacked me. In our last fight, I sent him running for the hills by casting the Blast Bomb, a legendary spell that only four people in history were able to cast. Including me. J

The second time it happened was when Gigaros escaped by setting that beetle Demon Beast lose on the town. With Cassandra's help, we vanquished it. To do that, I had to cast the Dragon Slave, the most powerful spell humans can cast in all Black Magic.

Don't give me that look! I'm not evil!

The point is... that at both times that power revealed itself. In both cases they had supercharged my spells, making them more destructive. It was actually thanks to this power that I was actually able to first cast the Blast Bomb.

"Now," Master Krots asked humbly, "Does anyone have any questions before we proceed?"

"Master Krots!" I said excitedly, drawing the looks of other students from my enthusiasm. "I have one."

Krots's ears twitched as he heard me. Turning around, he looked at me patiently with interest. "Yes Zane?"

"How are amplification items made and how exactly do they work?" I asked him straightforward.

A surprised look came to the brown werewolf's face as he heard my question, probably to see me so interested after he caught me with my head in the clouds. "That's an excellent question, Zane," he compliment simply as he began to explained. "Amplification generally works no different than one would use to draw power for a spell. In some cases items which store excess magic can be used to amplify ones capacity, but those only last once. However, there are rumors of artifacts used to raise one's captivity through use of a spell. These spells draw power from another source, for example, like how a Black Magic spell draws on the power of Mazoku, the demon race. That in turn can raise a sorcerer's captivity upon reciting the spell."

As he spoke, I wrote down what he said. Not in my notes, but my personal journal which held all my most treasured research. "And how do those spells draw power?" I asked with serious interest.

"Well, to do this one must use a medium that can channel that power from the foreign source when chanting the spell. Let's say for example... you wish to draw power to amplify White Magic. One would use a Stone of Binding. Or use of a crystal which draws spiritual energy can amplify Shamanistic spells," Master Krots explained. As he looked to me, I think I caught a glimpse of uncertainty on his lupine face. "Does that answer your question?"

I flashed a grand smile at him, one expressing great joy. "Yes it does! Thank you, Master Krots!" I said. With that, he turned back to the board and began to write more notes down.

No sooner had he turned around, I began to write down quick scribbles in my journal to remember. I had a great idea. One that almost had me busting my buttons and shouting for joy. The smile on my face grew even bigger as I wrote down my thesis to try out later.

Zane you devil, you're a genius!

***

Night had come and everyone was now sent to the dorms. The shrouded cloudy sky passed over the full moon with a creepy motion. As far as anyone would think, the last thing any average person would do was spend extra time with school activities. However as you might have guessed... I'm no average person. Tee-Hee!

Traveling under the cloak of night, I snuck out of the dorms. Before you assume anything and make an ass out of yourself, I'm not up to any mischief. After learning about Amplification from Master Krots, I was struck with a flash of inspiration. After all, for a future world famous sorcerer like me, I must be free to practice and experiment my latest theories.

With a bag of materials over my shoulder, I ran across the school grounds towards the workshop building. Luckily unspotted, I reached the large warehouse building without any trouble. The workshop was for advanced Alchemy classes, where upper classmen studied, develop magic items and other projects on a higher level than my class did. Abandoned at night, it was the perfect place for me to do my work.

After giving a small spell and disenchanting the lock, I slipped inside. It was dark, barely visible under the dim light of the moon through the windows. I gave a small murmur and held my hand out. "Lighting," I said. With my words, a tiny ball of light the size of a candle flame appeared and dimly lit the room. The room was constructed like a lab. Test tubes lined the cabinets and long desks with a variety of equipment were all around the room. The faint smell of different chemicals, possibly sulfur was still in the air, probably from the last class's experiment.

As the tiny light floated alongside me as I walked, I sat myself at a work area and placed my bag on the desk. I carefully dug out the contents of the bag and spread them across the desk. Before me was my Alchemy textbook, my journal, a few blank pieces of paper, a small brush, a black pastel block, a small sheet of cotton the size of the back of my hand, a few pieces paper with large magic circles on them and a small bar of gold material known as Orihalcon.

Spreading the objects apart, I opened my Alchemy textbook and started flipping the pages. There, I found the instructions for changing matter and the list of spells needed to perform them. Glancing over the instructions for a few minutes to make sure the process was correct, I started my plan. Taking the paper with the magic circle on it, I placed it dead center before me, making sure the points of the circle pointed into the four directions. Slowly to make sure I was doing this right, I placed the bar of Orihalcon onto the circle.

With a deep breath, I chanted part of an earth spell. No sooner I did, a tiny flash of green light lit up the circle and the gold bar with it.

Normally, Orihalcon absorbs magic energy so I was unsure if my magic would do anything to it. But when the bar of Orihalcon illuminated with the same glow, I gave a sigh of relief. Now I was able to work on the Orihalcon with Alchemy spells without worrying about the metal absorbing my power.

Gently lifting the bar up, I removed the circle and replaced it with another, different from the last one and placed the bar on it. Then, reaching over to the tools on the table, I found a ring stand and a flask with a funnel on top. I placed the ring stand with the flask below it and placed the bar of Orihalcon on top of the stand.

Taking another deep breath, I held my hands over the gold metal. I began to chant a mix of a fire spell and a water spell. Again the circle glowed with magic and before long the bar of Orihalcon began to glow with a pink aura of light. Slowly, the metal began to transform. It bubbled, as if the metal was turning from a solid state into a form like molten rock. Before long, the metal began to bend and then caved through the ring stand. Still aglow, the gold metal-liquid slipped into the funnel and slowly began to drip into the flask below.

The Orihalcon began to flow fluidly into the flask until it was all inside. To do what I wanted, I needed to reduce the Orihalcon into a liquid state so I could mold it. Carefully removing the funnel and the ring stand, I brought the flask filled with the glowing gold liquid to the side for a moment.

Scooting over to another side of the desk, I took out my journal, a spare piece of white paper and the black pastel. Placing the paper over the journal, I made sure the engraving was in the right place behind it. Then, with an artistic hand, I slowly began to make a rubbing of the object. After lightly rubbing the paper, I lifted it up. Surrounded by black was the engraving of a symbol of the Dragon God Ceiphied, the one from my journal. The image was curvy and at first it didn't even look like a dragon. But upon closer examination, it revealed the curvy outline of the dragon's body, tail, claws, head and a horn.

Leaning over back to the flask of melted Orihalcon, I replaced the magic circle below it with the one I used with the earth spell I cast. Taking the top of the glass container, I slowly tilted it so the liquid would come out on the circle. As the molten liquid slowly slid towards the spout, I chanted another earth spell to affect its temperature and matter. The pink glow of the Orihalcon slowly faded away as I finished my spell and tipped the flask more. Like syrup, the liquid Orihalcon poured onto the magic circle. Under the influence of my spell, the liquid remained like putty, becoming cool and not hardening into a solid.

Reaching for the sketch rubbing I did, I took out the small brush and the cotton sheet. With the brush, I dipped it into the puddle of gold metal. Using my artistic hand, I painted the white areas of the engraving, filling it in with the melted Orihalcon. I repeated the process carefully, until I had filled in the dragon engraving with gold. With the substance no more different than paint, I lifted the small sheet of cotton and pressed it onto the engraving.

I peeled it away. As I had hoped, the gold of the engraving had copied onto the small sheet of cotton. My limbs began to shake a moment with the thought of the next procedure. It was the moment of truth I'd have to live with.

With the gold image the appropriate size and the Orihalcon in the perfect state, the only thing left was to try it. I took a moment to take some long, deep breaths. Then finally composing myself, I nodded in determination and picked up the sheet of cotton. Slowly placing it correctly, I laid the sheet with the gold symbol on it on the back of my right hand. With my left hand placed on top of the sheet I pressed it down, making sure the Orihalcon soaked cloth touched my skin.

And giving the finishing touch, I chanted another fire spell to seal the deal. With a glow, I felt the small tingle of a burning sensation against my skin. Baring with it, I pressed my hand harder against the other, pushing the Orihalcon as it responded to my spell. I could see the liquid-metal paint glow. Then, finally the glow stopped and the small burn went away.

I gave a gulp as I looked at the sheet of cotton that covered my right hand. Slowly but hesitantly, I pulled the small sheet. Like any paint, it tugged against my skin like a bandage as I pulled it off. Slowly, I tugged it along until I saw a glimmer of gold against my hand. Finally I pulled it away. There, on the back of my hand was a perfect image of a gold Ceiphied engraving. It sparkles in the light of my lighting spell as I looked at it.

"Perfect," I said with breathless surprise and relief.

Personally, I wasn't a fan of body art. But this was necessary. Besides, aside of me being a sorcerer, I'm a priest as well if you count my studies in White Magic. Being branded with a picture of Ceiphied would more than prove my ethical and benevolent nature. And since I have a fancy for dragons, I felt I wasn't about to deny a dragon tattoo anytime soon. But the most important reason for me doing this was what this tattoo could do to my magic...

Satisfied with my work, I proceeded to pack my materials. Working quickly to not get into anymore trouble than I already was, I rushed and cleaned the lab equipment I used and stuffed the tools I brought with me into my bag. Snapping my fingers, I commanded the small light floating nearby to go out and it did. Glancing at the cool symbol on my hand, I swung my bag over my shoulder, doubled checked everything was just the way I found it and headed for the door.

The room was once again lit only by the moonlight as I reached the door. Taking yet another glance at my new golden dragon tattoo, I slowly opened the door.

"A-HA! I've found you, Zane!"

I froze in fright as I saw who was behind the door. There, standing before me with that arrogant smirk was Cassandra. I swear I would have screamed if I hadn't bit my tongue at that moment. Wearing her white fighter garb and her elegant cape, Cassandra was dressed in her Hero of Justice outfit. I have no idea where she picked up the idea of acting so painfully heroic.

"Uh... hi Cassandra," I said with a bit of a nervous shake to my tone. "What brings you out here?"

"Don't play coy with me," Cassandra boasted arrogantly as I came out and softly closed the door behind me. "I knew you were up to something! I could tell by that mischievous smile you had in class! But what ever misdeed you plot, I, Cassandra the Hero of Justice shall not let you triumph!"

Okay... Anyway...

Acting as annoying as ever, Cassandra stuck her face up to mine with a look of suspicion. "I bet you were plotting a prank on the workshop! Weren't you? You better come clean, or I'll make you confess," she threatened.

I gave a weary sigh as she looked at me with suspicion. "Cassandra, relax," I said. She stepped back and her look of suspicion disappeared. "I didn't do anything to the lab. I was just doing an experiment and this was the only place I could perform it," I explained.

Just then, Cassandra glanced down and caught the slight shimmer of my new tattoo off my hand. Looking closely, she saw the dragon tattoo on my hand. I saw her eyes narrow into angry slits as she looked at it.

That was never a good sign.

"You got a tattoo," she said plainly. Her gaze was still on my hand as if she was trying to burn it off with her angry staring alone.

Oh boy...

Her look suddenly came to me with a burning enthusiasm and scorn. "I knew you were a punk! Going out in the middle of the night to brand yourself with a tattoo! You're evil!" She then grabbed me by the helm of my cloak and shook me as if to choke me. "Repent! Repent! Be gone evil within!" She cried as she shook me about.

"Will you stop it?!" I shouted as she shook me, trying to keep my voice down however to not attract the campus guards. Finally done shaking me, she stopped and grabbed my wrist.

"Well, guess I have no choice but to Fireball it off," she said almost casually as she held a hand up to mine and a small glow of light appeared in her hand.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" I shouted right in her face, getting her to let me go. Surprised, she backed away from me and finally allowed me a moment to explain. Holding up the tattoo so she could see it better, I showed her the mark of Ceiphied. "This isn't just a tattoo. It's made of Orihalcon. See, it's an Amplification Crest!" I explained as I showed it fully to her.

Finally, rational thought returned to Cassandra's thick head. "Amplification Crest?" she asked slightly surprised, "Made from Orihalcon?"

I nodded at her in agreement and lowered my hand. "That's right," I replied simply.

"Zane, that's stupid!" Cassandra suddenly argued. A look of concern was on her face as if I had just done something life-threatening. "Orihalcon absorbs magical energy! It's like the bane of all sorcerers!"

"Just calm down," I said confidently, my calm expression easing her a bit. Showing the tattoo to her again, I explained it to her. "Listen, Gigaros said that my power is related to the gods. And Orihalcon is supposedly the teeth, bones and blood of Ceiphied the Dragon God. So I decided to mark myself with it in an emblem of Ceiphied as my medium to tap into that power. If my theory is correct, I should be able to tap into the power at will and use it when I need to. So basically, my tattoo will act like a Magical Amplifier."

As I finished, Cassandra eyes narrowed at me with suspicion. "Okay," she said, "And where did you get the Orihalcon?"

I paused slightly under the question. Hesitant, I turned around and faced the other direction shyly. "Uh, well... I kind of... borrowed it from the school Alchemy materials," I said meekly.

No sooner had I said 'borrowed', Cassandra's face lit up with shock at me. "ZANE!" she cried

"Look, I'm sorry!" I scolded back at her, getting her to listen to me. "But I didn't have a choice. Besides, I only took a tiny bar of it. They won't even notice it's gone."

Cassandra just eyed at me scornfully.

"Can we talk about this later?" I asked Cassandra kindly, "Just please don't tell the teachers what I was doing out here and all. You know how important this is."

Giving that annoyingly arrogant huff, she folded her arms across her chest and turned away from me. "Well, I suppose I could let it slide this time," she boasted, acting all bold and heroic. Then slowly, she gave a cheerful smile. "Considering it was for the cause of fighting the villains we face and all."

I shook my head with a bit of a smile. She could never admit being nice so easily. Still, I knew it was her love for justice that made her act this way. You couldn't be mad at her for that. "Let's go. I'm tired," I said and with a stretch of my arms, I walked back towards the dorms.

Side by side, Cassandra and I headed back to the dorms. It was probably eight-thirty or so as the clouds continued to pass of the moon creepily. It was times like this I was glad to have Cassandra with me. As we walked, she had that overly cheerful expression she was so annoyingly famous for.

"So," she asked as we walked, "how do you know that tattoo-amplifier thing will work?"

Closing my eyes, I tried to relax and placed my hands behind my head. "One way to find out. I'll give it a test drive in the morning in the training room," I explained calmly.

Cassandra then gave a gulp as she thought of something. "You know if it does work, imagine how much more damage you'll do to school property." Her voice was still cheery as she said it.

"Oh, aren't you funny," I sighed with frustration.

Suddenly, like a sudden pain that stabbed the back of my neck, a frightful presence appeared from somewhere. I opened my eyes wide in alarm as I felt it. A faint, sinister feeling that had crept up on me. I froze in my tracks as I felt it and gasped.

"Zane," Cassandra suddenly asked, "what's wrong?"

"Something's here..." I whispered, frightened.

That feeling. It spelled a sinister, terrifying nature that was unable to describe. It was so delicate that whatever was radiating it could have approached you without your knowing. And whatever it was... I had sensed it before.

"Yes..." I whispered as calmly as I could. "It's familiar. I've sensed this before, but..."

My eyes widen at the thought.

It's him!

"Watch out!" I shouted, shoved Cassandra away and jumped back myself.

No sooner had I pushed us apart, something streaked across where we once stood and shot at the ground. We had gotten out of the way just in time. Both of us startled, we turned to see what had struck the ground. What stood there was a throwing dart. One used by assassins.

Startled, Cassandra got to her hands and knees. "W-What was..." she gasped and then turned to where it came from.

The two of us quickly got to our feet and looked towards the south wall. The sky beyond it was hidden in the shadow of the dark clouds, but through it I could see the faint silhouette of someone standing on the top of the wall. It stood there like a raven perched on a tree branch, watching us. Then suddenly, it leaped into the air. I caught its figure as it jumped before the full moon, revealing to me who it was. I felt my nerve waver a moment, wishing that I hadn't snuck out of my dorm tonight.

The figure landed to the ground several yards away from us. Dressed all in black, the person there was just who I feared. It was the one who started it all. The famous assassin who had committed over a thousand murders. The beast man who'd come to kidnap me, failed and has come back. The werewolf ninja, Alpha.

"Good evening Zane Cosmon," Alpha growled in almost a casual tone, "Did you miss me?"

Cassandra and I stood there with surprise and fright as we looked at Alpha. I almost thought that it wasn't Alpha, because his appearance was slightly different. Alpha stood there, a throwing dart in his paw and clothed in a black ninja garb. However unlike the first time when he wore a full-face mask. This time he wore a black scarf tied like a mask that covered his nose and mussel. He wore a headband across his brow, giving way to a head full of silvery-grey hair. Quite an unusual quality for a werewolf.

And finally, dotting his black outfit was a fine, diamond-shaped crystal which he wore around his neck. The ruby-red crystal almost made me think that he had blood on his clothes.

A long moment of silence passed as neither one of us moved. Alpha just leered at us. His wolfish gaze was even worse than Master Krots. He had the look of one who killed without hesitation and held no shame for his deeds.

"What's different about him?" Cassandra murmured to me as she kept her eyes on Alpha.

"He traded the mask for the hair," I joked dully, my defense mechanism in dire situations.

Gathering what courage I could under the sudden fright, I gulped and confronted him. "Shouldn't you be harassing three little pigs somewhere?" I joked at him. I liked quipping at him involving those fairy-tale stories about the big bad wolf. It always made him steam.

Hitting its mark, Alpha gave a growl from behind his half-a mask. "Enough with your jokes," he growled coldly. "You know why I've come."

Like I can really forget, fuzz-face...

"Oh, stop acting all cool and scary!" I shouted, this time gathering my courage in preparation for a fight. "Do you really think you're going to capture me this time? I sent you running with your tail between your legs with the Blast Bomb! And let me tell you, I've become much stronger since the last time we met and I've finally mastered the Blast Bomb spell."

I couldn't help but boast a bit. It is something to be proud of, after all. J

Then, I pointed to Alpha bravely. "So why don't you just go home and leave us alone!" I told him loudly, my voice clear to Alpha.

All Alpha did was narrow his eyes at me. "Hm, quite confident of you, young Zane," he complimented with a huff, "But I too have grown stronger since our last encounter. And I'm afraid failure isn't an option for me this evening." With his words, he rubbed the ruby crystal around his neck a moment. "This time... you won't escape me..."

"HA! Don't make me laugh, you pathetic evil-doer!" Cassandra suddenly cried with a triumphant boast. Sticking her chest out proudly, she gave her heroic pose and pointed at Alpha as he stood in the shadows of the night. "As long as we fight together and our hearts filled with the virtue of light, your evil shall never prevail! So says Cassandra, the Hero of Justice!"

"Cassandra," I said in a hushed hiss towards her, "NOW IS NOT THE TIME!"

Just then, as if my shout had been the gunshot to start off a race, Alpha suddenly sprinted across the courtyard for us!

"How rude," Cassandra huffed with disgust and aimed her hands at him. "Burst Rondo!" From her hands an array of red balls of light shot forth. Given a homing effect, the balls of light collided right in front of Alpha. With a bang, a large cloud of smoke appeared. And leaping over that smoke appeared Alpha, now airborne in the air. But as he appeared, I already had my hands together with a spell in hand.

"Thunderball!" I cried. A ball of electricity shot from my hands at him. It hit! With a shout of surprise, the ball hit Alpha and erupted in a mighty blast of lightning. As the spell exploded, Alpha was sent flying across the courtyard until he fell to the ground several yards away.

Cassandra still aside me, looked to find Alpha lying on the ground in the distance. "Did you get him?" she asked worriedly.

"Don't think so," I replied as we watched him. From the distance, I saw him stir and slowly push himself up. He was no more than a little dazed. "Remember how hard it was to defeat him the last time? If Master Krots hadn't saved us, we'd been goners then. And even with his help, it wasn't enough to fully take him down."

Finally, Alpha returned to his feet and looked at us crossly from across the yard. Clear irritation was on his face as his eyes gleamed with malice.

"Guess I got to use the big guns early," I replied simply and brought my hands together.

I caught a glimpse of surprise from Alpha as he looked at me. He probably could hear my chanting from that distance with those ears.

"BLAST BOMB!!!" I cast.

The air whooshed and whined as dozens of balls of light began to swirl into existence around me. Then with a wave of my arms, the balls of light shot forth into the air and zoomed towards Alpha. They quickly collided with the spot where the werewolf assassin stood.

KABOOM!!!!!!!

The shroud of night was suddenly pushed away for a moment as the spell struck that one point, producing a large flash with the explosion. Fire gushed out everywhere as if fiery meteorites had crashed down from the sky. Now in the empty courtyard was a large bonfire where Alpha once stood.

"Ashes to ashes..." I recited as the fire glowed, lighting the area.

"Zane! Cassandra!" a voice called out and the two of us turned to see who it was. Not to my surprise, it was Master Krots. After that spell, I'm surprised the entire royal guard didn't run over here. Master Krots was running from the dorms, probably seeing the battle from the upper floors himself. "What in blazes is going on?" he asked worriedly as he reached us.

I gave a sigh as he looked at us, partially torn from yelling at us for being out so late and concern if we were hurt. "It was Alpha," I replied simply and Cassandra nodded in agreement. "He came back."

Master Krots looked from us towards the large patch of lawn that had been set ablaze by my spell. "Is he...?" Master Krots asked, glancing at the blaze and then turned back to us.

"I think so," I replied to him.

Still, Master Krots looked at the fire through the corner of his eye suspiciously. I couldn't tell why. Then, he turned to us and placed his paws on our shoulders. "Okay," he said calmly. "Let's get you two inside..."

Just then, I saw a something jump out of the blazing inferno before me, too fast for me to believe. It had leaped high into the dark night sky. Apparently, Krots's worries were correct as he quickly turned around as well. "Get back!" he growled and shoved me and Cassandra aside.

As we fell to the ground on our butts, Master Krots had leaped away with such speed he almost looked like a blur. Then landing in his place was another lupine figure of black and gray. It was Alpha. No sooner had he landed in that spot, he leapt out for Master Krots. Now only Cassandra was there, looking at me with surprise. "He's still alive?!" she cried, surprised as I was that he survived the Blast Bomb spell.

Moving fast, Master Krots kept his distance as Alpha pursued him. However, Alpha had the upper hand in speed. Dashing forth, Alpha landed a kick right in Krots's chest and used it to propel himself up into the air. Then, with the most of his ninja skills, he drew a salvo of throwing darts in his paws and then threw them at Master Krots.

Cassandra and I watched in shock as Master Krots got hit. Snagging his robes, the assault of daggers threw the werewolf teacher through the air towards the workshop. To my surprise, Master Krots was suddenly nailed to the wall. The darts that Alpha threw were now nailed around Master Krots and on his robes, holding him a few feet from the ground. Satisfied with the bonds, Alpha landed before him. Master Krots struggled against the darts which pinned him to the wall, but he just couldn't get loose.

"That should keep you busy for a bit," Alpha said coolly and looked Master Krots square in the eye. All Krots could do was look on helplessly as the knives pinned him to the wall. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking your student now." Master Krots gave one last struggle and a furious snarl of anger as Alpha turned away from him.

Walking back towards us, he eyed me with those wolfish eyes, looking icy against his grey-silver fur. "Now, where was I...?"

"Elmekia Lance!" Cassandra cried, no longer willing to take this sitting down. Firing a lance of light, it flew forth.

Alpha just jumped out of the way as the beam hit, only marking the ground. He dashed across the courtyard. But just as he was about to run our way, I was right before him with a spell of my own.

"Earth, submit to my will!" I shouted. With magic radiating from my hand, I slapped it towards the ground. "Stone Spiker!" The earth rumbled and shook where Alpha stood, forcing him to regain his stance. A big mistake. Suddenly, the ground shot out large stone spikes where he was. Several pierced the ground, ruining the courtyard with its destructive force.

But like before, Alpha had survived. No sooner had my spell finished, I saw him jump down from above one of the stone spikes. I swear that bastard was harder to kill than a cockroach.

With speed I couldn't comprehend, Alpha dashed towards me. In his paw was his assassin's dagger. He was like a blur as he dashed from the stones spikes and sprinted across the courtyard.

"Grey Bomb!" I shouted and pointed at the ground near me. No sooner that Alpha was about a foot away from me, the ground exploded. Sending us both flying backwards, I tumbled across the ground and ended up stopping near Cassandra. Concerned, Cassandra quickly helped me up.

No sooner had I got to my feet we saw Alpha standing across from us. He gave a growl as he eyed us narrowly. "Enough games," he said coldly. Then, grasping the red crystal around his neck he began to chant a spell. It was one I've never heard before and as Alpha chanted it, the crystal he held let out a small glow.

What is he doing?!

Then, his words began to make sense as he began to cast another spell. One that I knew... and also of its destructive power.

Holding his hands together with a ninja-hand sign, he spoke the spell. "Gaav Flare."

"GET DOWN!" I cried. Grabbing Cassandra, the two of us hit the ground.

Alpha fired the spell. From his hands a blazing spear of red light shot forth at us. Like lightning, the spear shot over our heads, grazing us with a fiery heat as if we were in a volcano. No sooner had the blast went away, I quickly turned to see where it went.

The blast of scorching light suddenly struck one of the buildings behind us. Then, to my horror the blast kept going. It cleaved right through the stone building and kept going, and struck another building behind it. Soon enough, I lost sight of it as it flew away, leaving a clear hole where it shot through.

Disbelief gripped me. How did he cast that spell?! It was impossible!

"What was that?!" Cassandra shouted, not sure if she heard Alpha's spell right.

With gritted teeth, I turned to Alpha. He just stood there, observing our fright. "Alpha!" I shouted at him. He cocked an eyebrow at me as he listened. "That spell! It was Gaav Flare, wasn't it?" I scold at him.

"Indeed it was," Alpha replied with a bit of a chuckle. "I'm impressed that someone your age could figure that out."

Surprised, Cassandra sat up and got to her feet. "That's impossible!" Cassandra shouted as I too got up. "Gaav Flare draws power from Gaav, the Demon Dragon King, and he was destroyed two hundred years ago!"

Crouching down in an attacking stance, Alpha' gaze went from Cassandra to me, seeing the shock and fear on my face. "I told you I've grown stronger since last we met," he spoke coldly as he drew his dagger. "Escape from me... now doesn't exist."

"Scatter!" I told Cassandra and the two of us ran in separate directions. Hearing us, Alpha sprinted off towards me again. As I ran, I chanted the strongest spell that popped into my mind. "Flare Bit!"

From my hands, a rain of balls of light came flying towards him. Acting quickly, Alpha rolled off to the side and then sprinted away, leaving the assaulting balls of energy behind him. But just as he ran, Cassandra caught him in her sight and cast her own spell. "Burst Flare!" she cried and cast her hands towards Alpha.

In front of Alpha's path, a bright sphere of fiery light appeared. Eyes wide with alarm, Alpha took off with another roll and dashed away from the sphere. Then with a large flash, the ball of light suddenly erupted in a burst of fire, creating another bonfire like I had before. The blast had sent Alpha flying through the air, soon to land on the ground. While balanced in the air, Alpha grasped his crystal again, chanted that weird spell and then cast another in succession with it.

"Disfang!" he howled. Just as he landed back to the ground, his shadow grew in size. From his shadow shot out the ghastly image of the maw of a black dragon. I heard of this spell. It conjures a shadow dragon and attacks you through the astral plane by attacking your shadow. It shot towards me fast, traveling along the ground towards my shadow. If it reached my shadow, I was done for.

Thinking fast, I brought my hands together. "Lighting!" I cried and a ball of bright light appeared near me. The head of the dragon didn't fade, but my own shadow did. Realizing my shadow had disappeared, it suddenly changed course and went off elsewhere.

Once I saw that the shadow dragon was gone, I realized Alpha was in clear sight. I quickly ran towards him, prepared to attack with all my force. Chanting a spell, I ran at him. He just stood there, his arm held up elsewhere but his gaze was at me. "I got you this time!" I shouted and brought my hand up high as if I was to swing down a sword. "Digger--!"

"STOP!!!" Alpha snarled loudly. His shout suddenly caused me to stop in my tracks, my lightning spell flickered electric energy in my hand as I held it. I don't even know why in hell I even stopped, but he got me to. I was only a room's distance from him. "You've lost, boy."

I cocked him a look as if he'd gone crazy. "Have you got a screw loose, pal?" I asked him as the electric spell disappeared from my hand. He just stood there. He could have attacked me... but he didn't. "What are you talking about?"

He narrowed his gaze at me, showing seriousness in his masked expression. "Just as I said. This fight is over. And you are about to surrender to me," Alpha explained.

"Are fleas ripping at your brain?!" I scolded at him, "Why in hell would I ever surrender to someone like you?!"

"Uh, Zane..."

Hearing her, I turned around. Standing not too far was Cassandra. Her hands were tight to her sides and her body was upright like a stick. Strangely, her face was frozen in a state of fright. "Cassandra?" I called out to her. "What are you doing? Why are you just standing there?"

It wasn't until then I noticed something was very wrong with her. "Can't...move..." she uttered, her eyes were showing a sudden expression of terror.

Then what I saw next caused me to lose my cool as well.

On the ground near Cassandra was the shadow dragon from earlier. Cast by the glow of the raging fire near by, its light cast a long shadow of Cassandra. Now Cassandra's shadow was right inside the dragon's maw, its teeth just touching the boarder of her shadow.

Slowly turning to Alpha, I finally realized what he did. He tricked me. When I got rid of my shadow, I figured the dragon would just disappear. Instead, Alpha redirected it to go after Cassandra. Holding his arm out, he commanded the dragon, directing it to hold Cassandra in its fangs. All the while, the werewolf ninja just looked at me with a smug look in his eyes.

"As you can see you have two options," Alpha said with a dark tone. "If you surrender and come quietly, I'll spare the girl. Refuse to cooperate... and my dragon will tear her to shreds."

I was speechless. Slight dread gripped me in a tight a hold as that dragon had its fangs around Cassandra. All my mind did was run a blank as I tried to think of a plan. But nothing... there was nothing I could think of. The moment I could cast a lighting spell to make Cassandra's shadow vanish, Alpha would already sic his beast and it would have torn Cassandra apart already.

My silence must have lasted a bit because Alpha spoke up. "No?" he asked, awaiting my answer. Then he cast a glance over to Cassandra. "Perhaps this can make up your mind..." And with that, he tightened his grip of the air in Cassandra's direction.

A small cry came from Cassandra as the dragon's maw closed slightly, its fangs now pushing into the shadow. With it, I saw a small trickle of blood run down her arms and the side of her head.

"STOP IT!" I cried out so desperately I couldn't believe I had said it. With it, Alpha eased his grip and looked back towards me as I took a step closer. "Okay, you win! I leisurely, "Very well. It's a deal." With that he lowered his arm and the dragon's maw loosened around Cassandra till it only grazed her again.

I gulped as his gaze came to me. I kept my arms to the side in surrender. "Come here," he said and beckoned me closer with a finger. With the light of the blazing flames near by I slowly walked towards him. The closer I got, the more I felt I was approaching the grim reaper. Finally after what felt like an eternity, I stopped aside him, not bothering to look him in the face.

"What now?" I asked bluntly.

I felt Alpha's gaze narrow crossly at me. "Don't worry," he growled, "You won't feel a thing."

Suddenly, a sharp blow struck me between my shoulder and neck. My head rang for a moment in pain and soon began to grow light. My legs felt weak suddenly and I felt myself fall into Alpha's arm, my mind drifting into darkness.

"I lied."

Chapter 2: Shadows Revealed! The Truth of the Hidden Conspiracy!

Oh... my head...

Coming to, a brilliant brightness burned into my eyes. My head was buzzing as I slowly opened my eyes. There I lied on a cold tiled floor. My body felt heavy. Slowly mustering my strength, I pushed myself up. My arms wobbled as I pushed up and sat on my knees. Groggily, I looked around.

The room was all white. Painfully white and not a speck of color anywhere. Before me was a clean and clearly never used fireplace. On top was a large mirror. Behind me was the same setup, showing the infinite image of my reflection going on forever.

"Where the hell did I wake up in?"

Next to me were two open doorways, both looking as if the lead towards a stairway. Finally getting to my feet, I walked about the room a bit. No matter where I looked everything was white. The whole place was weird.

Once the haze in my head cleared a bit, I headed towards the right stairwell. Stepping out of the room, I found myself in an equally white stairwell which climbed up and down in a box-like pattern. Across from me was another doorway, down a few of those steps. Eager to get out, I quickly jumped down the row of stairs and leaped through the doorway.

To my utter surprise, I was back in the room where I started from.

What the...?!

I turned my head frantically to look around. There was the same floor, the same fireplace, the same freaky mirror. My mind raced in confusion. I went strait across the stairway, so how in the nine hells did I come back here?

Going back out into the stairwell, I climbed the stairs upward. After going up about three or four floors, I came to another doorway and ran inside. My feet skidded to a stop as I looked inside. I was back in the same freakin room again! There was nothing different about it at all.

Panic started to peek in my head as I struggled to find out what was going on. Was it really the same room? I had to make sure! Taking a deep breath, I focused on a spell and started to chant one. "Flare Arrow!" With my words, a small bolt of red light struck from my hand at the ground. As the arrow struck, it left a small scorch mark on the neat tiled floor, marking the room.

With that, I went out again for the stairs. This time, I went down. Acting in the most illogical manner for this illogical place, I was starting to think on my toes rather than with rational thought. After running down a few floors, I came to another identical doorway and ran inside.

A gasp escaped me as first peered at the floor. There, dead center of the room was the scorch mark I had made on the floor. My mind went blank and my throat fell silent in disbelief. What in the world was going on here?

Realizing I had to calm down, I sat myself cross-legged on the ground to think before I had an embolism. Taking a series of deep breaths, I slowly repeated in my mind what was happening. Somehow, no matter where I went, I kept ending up in this same room. Was this an optical illusion? No, it was too elaborate and simple to be a normal man-made maze. Whatever it was, it was designed to keep me in. Then, the last logical explanation I could think up hit me...

Warped Space.

Mazoku, like Gigaros were capable of creating barriers where space is altered. You could go running in circles forever if trapped in one. There was no other explanation for it. Somehow I had been trapped in a space where I could only remain in this weird room. They must have used quite a bit of magic to create such an elaborate one.

And then, boys and girls, I came up with an idea.

Smirking, I stood up and stepped before the mirror. Standing directly in the center of the perfectly squared room, I took a deep breath and thought of a way out. If it was warped space, then I needed a way to rip it open or a way to cancel out the spell holding it together. That only left me with using White Magic to break the spell. I knew of one, but I wasn't sure if it would be strong enough.

Then, I drifted my gaze to the golden tattoo on my hand.

The golden image of Ceiphied on the back of my hand glistened. My White Magic may have needed practice, but if I combined it with the power of my new Amplification tattoo, perhaps it could work.

"I've still haven't tested it," I said calmly and then gave a hopeful sigh. "Well, no time like the present."

Placing my hand over the golden dragon tattoo, I started to chant the Amplification spell.

Lords of heaven of the highest order, I call upon you!

Grant me all the power that you possess!

With those words, the emblem of Ceiphied on my hand suddenly glowed to life. As if light was pouring out of the mark on my hand, it grew larger and larger. Surprised, I held my hand away as it poured out light into the already bright room. I hadn't even cast the other spell and it was already doing something. With the humongous flash, its light swallowed up the room and me along with it.

And with that bright light, I felt my mind slip off elsewhere...

***

The next thing I knew, I was looking at the inside of my eyelids. It took a while before I noticed that I couldn't move my arms or legs. I felt groggy, as if I had been dreaming of the whole warped space room all that time. I felt heavy, my limbs numb against what felt like stone. My ears were greeted with the sound of voices nearby, telling me I wasn't alone.

Too tired to do anything, I just listened, my eyes still closed as if I was asleep.

"We've recovered him at last," someone said, "You sure took your sweet time."

Another voice gave a feint growl. "Don't you dare mock me? I got the job done."

"He doesn't look that tough now..." another spoke.

As another haze cleared from my consciousness, a small groan escaped me. The room suddenly went silent for a moment.

"I thought you said you've bound his consciousness with magic?" one of them growled low. "I did," another replied. Just then, the steps of feet grew closer to me. "So you're awake, are you?" he dawdled.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. There was no blinding-white room. That was a good sign. Still, my situation was anything but good.

The room I was now in was dark, only lit by the glow of a few candles that hung from the walls. It wasn't until then that I noticed that I too was hung to the wall. My wrists and feet were nailed in iron cuffs against the cold stone, keeping me hung a few feet from the ground. The room looked to be an abandon dungeon, closed off except for a small door in the back. And that wasn't the worse of it.

Standing right before me was a man dressed in a black robe. The only feature that stuck out his identity was the demonic dragon mask he wore over his face. With his arms behind his back, he looked up at me as if to examine me.

Not him again...

"Gigaros," I said dully under tired eyes, "Long time no see..."

Diverting my gaze at him, I looked to see the rest of the room. And the other company was not pleasant. Accompanying Gigaros was Alpha. The masked werewolf leered at me coldly with his silvery eyes, clearly expressing his hatred towards me. Along with him were other men dressed in black. They also wore masks over their face, less decorated and identical to one another unlike Gigaros's. I felt that I had been kidnapped by a cult. What actually scared me however... was that I just might have been right.

"And you brought a party too," I quipped groggily.

Gigaros chuckled at me, his gaze through his mask placed upon me. "Indeed, my young Zane," the Mazoku cooed with malevolent glee as he stepped closer to me. "And you're the guest of honor."

Fully awake I grew a serious scowl at him. I could sense slight resentment in Gigaros as he looked at me. "How did you break my mental prison?" he hissed with displeasure.

I was slightly surprised. He had created a warp space in my own mind, keeping my consciousness from my actual body. Quite clever.

I cast Gigaros a dull stare. "You mean that sick joke of a white room where I ran in circles?" I asked him rhetorically, "Child's play."

At that moment, Alpha let out a growl at me. "Master Gigaros, let me shut up that pest," he said as he stepped forward from the darkness of the room.

"No Alpha," Gigaros said and held up a hand to stop his approach. Alpha obeyed willingly. "Let him quip while he can. Soon enough, he won't find anything to joke about."

My gaze grew sterner. The more I came aware, the more I came to realize that they had finally accomplished their goal. They had captured me and now I was held in a dungeon cell god-knows how far from Saillune. And from Cassandra and Master Krots.

"Hey Alpha," I asked firmly, drawing the werewolf ninja's gaze to me. "You better not have killed Cassandra..."

He cast a snarl in my direction. "Don't insult my word, boy," he growled with annoyance. "I left your friend in one piece. Made a fit when I carried off your unconscious body, but still." I returned his comment with an angry look.

Man, being in the enemies' clutches suck!

Trying my best to remain calm, I looked back to Gigaros behind his stupid mask. "So you finally caught me," I pointed out bluntly, "Now what? What are you planning that requires me of all people?"

Gigaros just chuckled sinisterly as the few guys in the back just stood there silently. I guessed they were Gigaros's lackeys. Simple followers to whoever was the ring master. "I fear I'm not at liberty to say. But be patient, soon my master will be more than happy to fill in the details," he snickered. Had I not been nailed to the wall, I would have kicked him right in his face.

"That won't be necessary," a voice from the back of the room spoke.

A sudden sense of cold evil suddenly filled the room. It was a presence that was subtle, yet evil. There was no other way to describe it. And apparently the followers, Alpha and Gigaros knew it too because they stepped aside from the door.

To my surprise, standing in the doorway was a tall man, probably around the age of thirty. He wore a red robe, mounted by a mantle he wore over his shoulders that made him look like a sage-warrior. He was built like a veteran, with brown hair that led to a sharp beard. He held his hands behind his back as he stepped into the cramped cell, the black cloaked minions making room for him. I looked at him as he approached, unable to believe such a feeling was radiating from him. He looked like a normal person.

Walking slowly, he approached Gigaros's side before me. Gigaros then bowed in respect to the man. "Is this him?" the man asked with a rugged voice.

"Yes, my lord," Gigaros said, his voice a slight quiver.

With no where else to look, I was forced to look at the mysterious man as he stared at me. He took another step and a slight smile came to his face. "So, you're the illusive Zane Cosmon I've heard so much about," he said pleasantly as if I were not held prisoner. "You've gave us quite a runaround, haven't you? I'm impressed you've resisted my forces for so long."

"I'm flattered," I said grumpily, not daring to show him the respect everyone else was cowering to do.

His smile dropped just a tad and he gave a small huff of disappointment. "Kids these days," he then said nonchalantly and gave a shrug of his shoulders. "No one teaches them respect for their elders."

"Just who are you?" I spat at him.

"Pardon me," the red robed man said with a chuckle and gave a small bow to me. "Apparently I too have forgotten my manners. I am the Mazoku Grou, general of this organization."

My eyes went wide with surprise as I looked at him. No way to react with my body all spread to the wall, I took full force of the surprise. "You're a Mazoku!?" I cried with disbelief.

Grou's calm smile remained as he eyed me with interest. "Yes," he replied calmly, "Why so surprised?"

"But you practically look human," I said with interest.

A laugh escaped him. "Shape is meaningless to my kind," Grou boasted deeply, "High-level Mazoku like myself have little difficulty taking a human form."

Feeling the creeping sensation of evil all around me, I took a moment to look over General Grou's shoulder. "So... are all of them Mazoku as well?" I asked, looking at the minions who stood in the back.

Grou nodded at me with that gentle look on his face. The fact a monster lurked below the surface played havoc on my nerves. "Yes. Everyone in this base aside from Alpha here are Mazoku. So you see, I fear you won't be escaping here anytime soon," he said calmly.

Shoving down the lump of fear in my throat, I took a deep breath. "Okay, so you got me! Mind telling me what this is all about?" I asked the red-robed general before me. "I want to know what's going on! I have a right to know!"

Closing his eyes, Grou looked away for a moment in thought. "You're right. You do deserve to know," he then said and opened his eyes to look at me. Bringing a fist towards his mouth, he cleared his throat with a cough. "Are you familiar with the war of the gods and the demon race?"

I nodded my reply, keeping my eyes on the Mazoku general.

"Several thousand years ago," he began, "The Dark Lord Shabranigdo and the Flare Dragon Ceiphied fought in a titanic battle for the fate of this world. In the end, disappointingly, the mighty Dark Lord was imprisoned by ..." "Ceiphied broke Shabranigdo into seven parts and sealed him on our world," I butted in, summing up his tale bluntly. "Thousand years later, a fragment of the Dark Lord was reborn, fought the Water Dragon King and was sealed into the earth. And till this day, the powers of Ceiphied and Shabranigdo are still in constant conflict. I know the legends, General Grou!"

A small grunt came from the general as he looked at me. "Perhaps," he said, but then looked at me with a wicked smile. "But that's not the whole story, Zane,"

I lifted an eyebrow with interest.

"What was left out of the history books," Grou said and turned his back to me as he talked, "was when Ceiphied was destroyed, his soul continued to live on. That was how his power remained to conflict the Dark Lord even after his body was destroyed."

"In the Dragon Kings?" I asked simply, guessing.

Then, Grou looked back at me though the corner of his eye. "No Zane," he said with a rasp of a voice. "His soul lived on... in human beings."

I felt my heart throb a second as I heard that. "Human beings?" I thought aloud, unable to believe it. I never heard of such a thing before. None of the books or lessons at the Sorcery Academy even mentioned the idea of reincarnation of a god or demon.

"His soul has been passed down through countless generations. Surely, Gigaros had told you about this when you two met," Grou said as he turned back to me. His grin showed a more sinister twist. "We've even discovered that the last person to possess Ceiphied's soul was Lina Inverse's older sister. And while it dwells in each human host, it grows stronger until Ceiphied is able to be resurrected."

"But what does this have to do with me?" I cried out, slight fright racking within me as Grou talked.

"You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" Grou asked as he stepped towards me, hung up against the wall. "Zane Cosmon... Ceiphied's soul now resides in you." Grou said and poked me at my chest.

Slight surprise came to me. No, more like complete bewilderment or something beyond as the thought registered in my head. My heart throbbed again, as if Grou's touch had somehow spurred a reaction from my soul... or most likely, Ceiphied's.

"C-Ceiphied's inside me?" I asked in breathless surprise.

"Yes. His soul has gathered strength, like a ripened fruit waiting to be plucked. It is within your lifetime that his resurrection will occur," Grou said and removed his hand from me. His wicked smile grew as he looked at me. "And I fear we can't have that happen."

A scowl came to my face as I tugged at my bonds towards him. "If that's true, then why not just kill me already?" I scold at him.

A chuckle came from the general and he tucked his arms back behind his back. "It's a bit more difficult than that, my boy," he cooed in a gentlemanly tone. "See, if we killed you, Ceiphied's soul would just find another vessel to hide in. What we need is a way to expose the god's soul and then destroy it."

The wicked smile on his face grew a look of shock to me as I pieced together his plan. "And if Ceiphied's soul is destroyed, the power that's been holding Shabranigdo back will be broken!" I thought aloud in alarm.

"...and darkness will engulf the earth, allowing the Mazoku race to reign over this world," Grou concluded, smirking at the metal image of a world run by Mazoku.

I pulled again against the iron cuffs in anger. "If you think I'd let you get away with this completely unopposed, your crazy!" I shouted at him, my voice booming within the stone room.

"I fail to see how you are going to be much of an obstacle now," Grou spoke knowingly, "As far as I can tell, the most difficult part was simply locating and capturing you. Now it's just a matter of time." With that, he stepped up to me, reached up for my head and gave me a pat as if I was a child. "So calm down, relax... you will be here for quite some time."

I shook my head as he withdrew his hand, trying to throw him off myself. With that, he turned around and began to walk away. "Enjoy your stay with us," he said and waved his hand in goodbye.

"Wait a second?!" I cried out. The demon general stopped at my voice. "Since you've got me, you might as well do me the right to ask you one more question."

Grou turned his head and looked over his shoulder. "Yes?" he asked simply, awaiting my question.

"When Alpha and I fought before he captured me, he cast the Gaav Flare spell," I explained with tense frustration. "I know for a fact that the source of that spell's power was destroyed two hundred years ago. So how one of your own followers could cast that spell?"

Amused with my question, General Grou turned around and smirked at me. "Oh, you mean this?" he asked and reached into the helm of his red robe. Reaching down his chest, he pulled out an identical red crystal that Alpha had. At that moment, Grou glanced over to Gigaros with a raised of his eyebrow. Taking the silent hint, Gigaros reached down his robe and too withdrew another one of those crystals.

"These are called Chaos Crystals," Grou explained, holding his up to show it to me. "They... are solidified fragments of the Sea of Chaos, where the souls of the dead dwell."

Fragments from the Sea of Chaos!?

"Like magical amplifiers," Grou continued, "These crystals act to amplify the power of Black Magic. Also, these crystals have the ability to call upon the power... of Mazoku and Dark Lords which have died." With a satisfied grin, he tucked the crystal back into his robes. "After realizing how much trouble you were to catch, my master felt it was necessary distributed them amongst us."

Will the surprises ever cease?! "So you have a master too," I scold, not able to believe how big this plot was getting. "Is there any end to the hierarchy here?!"

Grou laughed at my comment. Like all Mazoku, they lived off the misery that human beings radiated. It made me sick seeing his smug, little smirk. "As much as I loved to stay and chat with you, barer of Ceiphied, I fear I have much work to attend to," he quipped smugly, "Do make yourself at home." And with that, he turned around and proceeded to walk away.

Before him, the masked followers in the back quickly left the room before Grou as Gigaros followed behind him. Just then, Grou stopped before Alpha. "Alpha," he said coolly, grasping the sliver-maned werewolf's attention. "I'm putting you in charge of guarding the boy. Do as you wish with him, but he is not to be harmed until I say so."

UH-OH!

I saw Alpha flinch at his words. I think he was just as hesitant with that idea as I was. "Sir," Alpha spoke, "I don't think--"

"Is there a reason for you to contradict what I ask, Alpha?" Grou interrupted, giving Alpha a stern look through the corner of his eye.

Alpha stepped back with slight hesitation at his look. Could Alpha really be that afraid of the guy? Then, the werewolf ninja bowed his head towards him. "No, master Grou," he said humbly.

"Very good," Grou replied and then continued on. Leaving the room with Gigaros behind him, the two left and closed the cell door shut.

No sooner had the door closed, I hesitantly drew my gaze to Alpha. Standing near a table that sat in the room, he looked at me crossly. A shiver went down my spine at the thought of being alone with him of all people.

"Eh," I gulped nervously, and gave a nervous smile, "Hello roomy."

A growl of detest escaped the covered mussel of his mask.

***

? "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!"? My song had been going on for quite some time. I'd lost track how long I've been down in the darkness of the grimy cell shackled to the wall. It felt like two or three days, how long for sure I didn't know. Who knew how long it would take for Grou and his men to find a way to retrieve Ceiphied's soul from me. And all the while I was stuck under the ever-watchful eye of Alpha. Though I dozed off one in a while, I was hardly able to sleep given the position I was in.

Alpha didn't even fall asleep. He just kept watching me. Now he sat at the table in a lone chair. His elbow was on the table with his paw holding up his face tiredly. Not out of exhaustion, but boredom. I was singing a little song you could probably guess by now what it was. Chained to the wall and time growing short, I was left with one option to aid my situation.

Psychological warfare.

? "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes!" ?

I could tell Alpha was steaming over this, using the best of his abilities to block the song out of his head. But like his temper, it never lasts.

Continuing, I sang the song again, doing my best to test Alpha's limits. If it didn't do squat to aid in an escape, at least it made do for hilarious entertainment. ? "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves," I sang annoyingly, a process that would have given Cassandra a run for her money. ? "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes..." ?

I stopped abruptly. There was a long silence as Alpha kept his eyes on me. Then finally, Alpha gave a sigh of relief. The sudden silence eased his mind, allowing him a moment's peace.

Yeah right!

? "I know a song that gets on everybody...!"

A loud bang shook the room as Alpha slammed a fist against the table. I immediately stopped singing as Alpha's eyes glared at me in angry slits. "Be quiet, you runt!" he snarled at me, crouching up from the table angrily.

I smirked at him playfully. "You have no music in your soul, Fighto," I joked.

With an angry grasp in his voice, he approached me. "Mark my words, the moment Master Grou gives me the permission, I'll make you suffer so much you'll beg for death at my claws!"

Still I smirked calmly at him. "Oh dear," I quipped more, "The fearful Alpha who slew over a thousand victims reduced to a lack-dog for demons."

Suddenly, Alpha erupted with a frightening growl and lunged at me. He gripped my neck with his paw and tightened around it.

"Ah-ah-ah!" I spoke calmly before Alpha could tighten his grip on my throat. "General Grou told you not to harm me. You wouldn't want to go against his orders, would you?"

Seeing me smirk brought a snarl out of Alpha as he drew his face closer. He forced me to look directly into his cold eyes. "Listen to me, you infuriating brat," he rasped at me no more than a whisper. He still held his paw around my neck. "Master Grou may have told me not to kill you... but I can make you wish you were."

"My, grandma," I chuckled nervously, "what big teeth you have."

At that moment, Alpha erupted with a horrifying howl that almost sounded like a roar. The long hair that ran down his back stood up in anger as he looked at me. Now... I was frightened.

But just then, there was a knock on the door.

"WHAT!?" Alpha snarled so loud I was afraid he'd actually tear me to shreds. With that, the door opened. Standing in the doorway was one of those minions in black and a plain mask over his face. Calmly, he stepped inside the dank dungeon. "What do you want?" Alpha growled as the masked figure approached.

"I've been instructed to relieve you of your watch," the minion said in a deep tone. "Get some rest. I'll keep an eye on him for a while."

Alpha looked at him for a moment. Then, he gave a huff and in a sulking posture, walked passed the minion with a grumble. "Thanks," Alpha grumbled as he left. "That brat's a pain in my tail."

Gripping the door, Alpha slammed the cell door hard and walked away. The masked figure continued to look at the door as the sound of Alpha's angry footsteps faded away. Once there was not a sound around, the masked man turned to me and approached closer. "Why they find you so interesting is beyond me," he mumbled within ears reach of me.

"Who asked you?" I grumbled at him.

With that plain, white mask, the stranger stepped closer. "You should be a little more polite among my company," he cooed in a teasing manner.

I just gave him a scornful stare. "And why would I give you the benefit?" I spat at him.

He gave a weary sigh. "Because I'm about to free you of your misery," the stranger said. He then raised his hand towards me and a ball of glowing light appeared in it.

My eyes shot wide with shock. "W-Wait a minute!" I shouted frantically, "Your boss wants me alive, remember!?"

The bolt of light suddenly shot forth a beam of light. At the sound, I closed my eyes in bracing myself.

Suddenly, I felt the bonds of my wrists and legs suddenly fall apart and I fell to the floor. Stumbling onto my knees and hands, I looked to find that I had been freed from the shackles of the wall. With wobbly limbs, I looked up to the masked man who stood over me. He then leaned towards me with an outstretched hand from under his black robes.

"Can you move?" he asked simply.

Confused, I nodded and took his hand.

With a hard pull, the stranger got me to my feet. "Good. Follow me," he said quickly and approached the door of the cell. I stood there dumbfounded as he opened the door and stepped outside. Noticing that I wasn't following, he turned around and looked at me through his mask. "Come on," he said, "They would have heard the blast. We need to go."

Knocked to my senses thanks to his hurried motivation, I quickly ran after him into the hallway and left the cell behind me.

The dark hallway was dreary and dark. It was a miracle I could even see in this place. Now running after my cloaked rescuer, I followed him. Nonetheless, suspicion still pegged this guy. His voice almost seemed fake and why would one of the demon cult's own member help me.

"Hey you," I called out to the masked guy in front of me. "Mind telling me why you saved me?"

"We don't have time to explain right now," he said again in that fake deep voice. Sounding now more frantic, he ran down the hallway and turned a corner. I followed close behind. "We have to keep moving otherwise they'll find us."

Before long, we reached another turn in the long hallway. It felt like a labyrinth as we ran through the dark corridors. Turning sharply, we ran down the next corridor. But just then, the masked man came to a sudden halt, causing me to stop as well and look to see what was before us.

Standing before us at the end of the hall was Gigaros. He stood there calmly as if he predicted we'd come. Behind him stood about half a dozen of those white-masked minions like the one who saved me had. A grunt of disappointment came from my masked savior as he looked to see that we've been cut off.

"I thought I sensed something familiar about you," Gigaros cooed coyly at the one who helped me. My friend stepped back in defense. "I congratulate you on a noble effort, but this is as far as you go."

My masked friend just stood there calmly as he confronted Gigaros. Who was this guy anyway?

"So you knew who I was the moment I came here?" the stranger asked bleakly.

Gigaros chuckled under his mask. "It's rather hard to disguise you of all things," Gigaros quipped calmly and pointed to the stranger near me. "The jig is up. That mask won't protect you anymore..."

Just then, a confident huff came from the low voice of the masked stranger. "Hmph, I suppose the face of justice can never be masked!" he huffed. He then reached the helm of his mask and robes.

My eyes went wide at what I saw. The stranger gave a dramatic twist as the black robes were yanked off. In an elegant dance, the robes spun around the person, revealing the color of white clothes and a cape. Finally tossing the robes aside, the image of elegant blond hair greeted my eyes. With such blond hair, that white fighter garb and cape, and that over-dramatic entrance, it could only be one person...

"CASSANDRA!?" I cried.

Standing heroically before Gigaros with a hand at her hip was indeed, Cassandra. The robes she threw hit the ground as Gigaros looked at her unfazed. All the while, my overly-cheerful classmate kept a proud smile on her face. "Hello Gigaros," she said cheerfully. And with a heroic pose, she gave a serious look with her confident smile. "And this time, justice will be served!"

***

"Oh please," Gigaros mocked tiredly.

"Excuse me!" Cassandra stopped him with offence in her tone. "I'm not done with my entrance yet."

Oh-no! Here we go again...!

Cassandra gave a cough to clear her throat and then looked before the group of Mazoku that stood before us. And then, she pointed out towards them in a dramatic pose. "H is for the Heart that exists in all that's good!" Cassandra shouted proudly, and then gave a different heroic pose as she continued. "E is for whatever Emergency that threatens good, I shall always be there!" And with each letter, she gave another humiliating pose. "R is for the Righteous fury I fight with in my soul!" And finally, she ended her spelling lesson by pointing back to Gigaros and his followers behind him. "And O is for... Oh-no, you're done for!"

As she spoke, I purposely bumped my head against the stone hallway. God, help me...

"The bright light of the heavens may forgive your sins, but I shall not!" she cried out loud and gave her finishing cry. "So says Cassandra, the HERO of Justice!!!"

An eerie silence passed over the group of Mazoku. I assumed they were as embarrassed to hear her speech as I was. "... Are you finished yet?" Gigaros asked in dull impatience.

With a huff, Cassandra tossed a lock of her hair over her shoulder. "Yes, I am," she replied confidently. Relieved to hear she was finished, I joined back near her.

"This is no place for little girls," Gigaros said rather bitterly under his mask. Slowly, the demonic-dragon masked Mazoku slowly approached her. All the while Cassandra calmly stayed there with her confident smile. "You're out of your league. Now step aside and maybe I'll grant you a painless death."

Even with Gigaros's threat, Cassandra kept her composure. She closed her eyes as if in concentration. "Gigaros," she spoke calmly. Then she opened her eyes and to my surprise, they showed a grand seriousness that matched her confidence. There was no fear in her expression. "This is the last time you ever underestimate me!"

"Foolish bravery..." Gigaros grumbled as he approached. With it, a ball of black energy appeared as he brought up his hand.

At that moment, Cassandra began to chant under her breath. Under all that was happening, I couldn't tell what it was. Finally, she finished her chant. Then, she did another heroic dance. "Ready!" she shouted cheerfully as she gave a graceful spin around. Waving her cape and long hair, she faced back towards Gigaros. Pointing a finger at him, Cassandra gave a playful wink in his direction and spoke the power words. "Ra Tilt!"

What the heck!?

Suddenly to my surprise, a bright white light shot up from below Gigaros. Gigaros stepped back in surprise as the light appeared but was already trapped in its glow. "Impossible--!" was all Gigaros could say. At that moment, the light erupted in a blaze of blue-white flame that swallowed Gigaros. With a loud death-cry, the blazing light consumed him.

As the last of Mazoku's cries faded away, the light of the spell disappeared. Dropping suddenly to the ground was Gigaros's mask and the Chaos Crystal he bared around his neck. The only things left of the Mazoku.

Flicking another lock of her hair, Cassandra smiled triumphantly at what she did. Facing towards me, she made a V with her fingers and gave me a very-cheerful smile. "Victory!" she cried happily, "My first vanquished foe for the sake of Justice!"

Slight amazement was frozen on my face as I looked at Cassandra. "Cassandra," I said with disbelief. "Since when did you learn the Ra Tilt spell?"

In case you're wondering, the Ra Tilt was the strongest spell in all Shamanistic Magic and is just as strong as the Dragon Slave. The spell works by destroying a target's spirit. Even a pure-bred Mazoku like Gigaros could be destroyed with it.

Still cheerful, Cassandra turned to me with a kind smile. "Oh, well I took the liberty of learning some stronger spells before I came here," she said, "I hope I didn't come too late to save you."

Just then, the gasps of surprise caught our attention. Turning around, we saw the minion Mazoku gawking over the remains of Gigaros. "M-Master Gigaros!" one of them cried in shock and then looked towards us.

Soon all the masked minions looked at us though their masks. I was no expert on body language, but I believe after you vanquish a pack of Mazoku's superior, they grow a bit peeved.

"Get them!" one of them shouted angrily.

"Capture the boy and kill that arrogant girl!" another snarled. With angry cries, the hoard of Mazoku minions came running.

Still standing confidently, Cassandra eyed them as they approached. "Want more?" she quipped. But before she could start chanting, I stopped her by gently grasping her shoulder.

"Hold on," I told Cassandra. Hearing me, she let me get ahead of her. This time, I was the one with a confident smile. "Let me have a whack at them!" Holding my hand out with the golden tattoo of Ceiphied, which now held new significance for me, I placed two fingers from my other hand upon it and chanted the Amplification spell. With my words, the gold tattoo began to glow.

A slight burning sensation tingled at my skin as the tattoo glowed, but not enough to cause any pain. Disregarding it, I focused on the incoming Mazoku running towards us. I started another chant, one to blow those monsters to hell and over again. Bringing my hands together, a white flame appeared between my palms. "Elmekia Flame!" As I threw my hands forth, the flame between my palms exploded in a mighty blast like a cannon.

In truth, Elmekia Flame was no bigger than the torso of a man. This one was the practically the size of the whole hallway. Rushing forth, the blazing white fire shot down the hall with a mighty roar and met the charging Mazoku. With no where else to go, the Mazoku got hit full blast of the spell and within its fiery blast, they were reduced to nothing.

As the blast of spiritual fire disappeared, I witness as there was nothing left of the Mazoku that were just hear. Either they were lesser demons who couldn't withstand such a strong spell, or my Amplification spell worked better than I could've imagine. In any case, the Amplification worked completely!

Oh, yeah! I'm a genius!

"Was that the Amplification Crest you were talking about?" Cassandra asked, causing me to turn to her. An impressed look was on her face. I nodded in agreement. "I guess it worked after all." Then, realizing we were still deep in the enemy's threshold, Cassandra ran past me to the other side of the hall. "Come on, were not out of this yet!"

I began to run after her, but suddenly a glimmer from the side of the narrow hall caught my eye. I stopped and looked to find aside Gigaros's mask was the Chaos Crystal that remained after Cassandra destroyed him.

"What are you doing?" Cassandra called back to me a small ways down the hall, seeing me stop. "We need to go!"

"Just a sec," I called out to her as I leaned over Gigaros's remains. "This could come in handy." Grasping the red crystal quickly, I got back to my feet and ran after Cassandra and she then ran too, leading the way. As I ran, I slipped the string of the Chaos Crystal over my neck and tucked it into my shirt for safe keeping.

Reaching a stone stairwell, Cassandra and I ran up it until we reached a doorway at the top. Upon exiting the stairs, we found ourselves in an old abandon hallway that almost looked majestic. I assumed this base must have been an old ruin somewhere. Following Cassandra close by, we ran down the hall where I hoped the exit to this horrible place was.

Before long, the hall opened into a large room that looked to be an entrance hall. I could see the door just a bit further ahead and a sigh of relief came out as I saw it. But just then, a sudden voice halted our run.

"What the!?" a voice growled from the other side of the room, grabbing our attention. On the other side of the large room was Alpha. His eyes were wide with surprise to find me free... and to find Cassandra here I could imagine.

"Hi Alpha!" Cassandra called out teasingly. She had that overly cheerful smile as she mocked him. "Nice to see you again!"

The masked wolf was all a flustered with shock. He didn't even move first as he looked right at us. As Cassandra talked, I chanted the Amplification spell under my breath.

"Rrr! I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Alpha howled and charged at us full speed. Luckily I had my spell finished. Jumping in front of Cassandra, I held my hands up and released my spell as the Ceiphied tattoo glowed on my skin.

"Bomb Di Wind!" I cried. With my shout, a gigantic gust of wind shot forth at Alpha. The wind was so strong, some of the walls from the far walls chipped apart under the rush of air. Instantly, Alpha was blown away into the air and suddenly crashed into the wall behind him hard. A large crater resulted as he crashed in the wall, indicating that had to hurt.

Perhaps I overdid it a bit...

"Okay, let's go!" I said quickly, grabbed the gawking Cassandra and ran for the open doorway.

The night air greeted us as we jumped out of the ruin. The ruin was placed on a hillside, surrounded by wide forestland that seemed to go on forever. Quickly running down some steps that marked the ruin's entrance, we ran towards the forest. Finally we reached the foot of the hill which bordered the forest. No sooner had we stopped there, we ended up gripping our knees and caught our breath.

"I hate running," I panted as I looked to at the old ruin at the top of the hill. Silhouettes were running from and two the old building frantically. Apparently my disappearance and our fights caused quite a bit of confusion. "So much for sneaking away unnoticed."

"Let's go, come on!" Cassandra said and gripped my arm to run.

But as she tried to pull me along, I held my ground. "Wait Cassandra," I said and got her to let go of my arm.

"What are you doing?" she hissed in a whisper.

Facing the ruin, I held the hand with the Ceiphied emblem out. "After they hung me up on a wall like a freakin picture frame," I said with a sly tone and brought my other hand over the tattoo. "I think it's only fair that I send them a little goodbye present."

Focusing, I chanted the spell clearly before Cassandra. "Lords of heaven of the highest order, I call upon you! Grant me all the power that you possess!" Along with the tattoo glowing, this time the ground below me too began to radiate a glow as well. From below me I could make out that the golden light drew a shaped just like the emblem on my hand. Glowing around me, I felt power rush through my veins towards my hands as I cast another spell along with it.

"Blast Bomb!" This time, dozens of balls of light appeared the size of large balloons before me. Throwing my arms forth, the large bolts of fiery light shot high into the air. Zooming into the sky, Cassandra and me watched as they became dots in the sky like the stars.

As the light that had glowed below me now faded away, we looked as the balls of light came shooting back down to earth. Like meteorites, they rained down and struck the old ruin. With just one strike of the balls, one whole side burst apart in flames. Another burst followed, and another, and another, till large explosions of fire ripped at the building and the hill it stood upon.

The fire lit the surrounding as Cassandra and I watched as the bolts of light came crashing down faster now and erupted upon their impact. The two of us watched in awe as the explosions grew bigger.

"I think our work here's done," I said simply and rather suddenly, ran into the woods.

"Ditto," Cassandra replied and did the same.

Leaving the burning base behind us, we quickly retreated into the deep depths of the forest.

Chapter 3: Destination: Where is Saillune?

" WHAT!?" Cassandra cried, " THE POWER YOU HAVE IS CEIPHIED'S SOUL!?"

Sitting on a large bolder, I gave her a dull look. "A little louder please," I told her dully, "There are some owls still sleeping that didn't hear you."

After running even more into the deep forest, god knows were, we finally felt safe enough to hide out a little bit to catch our breath and explained what was going on. I had just finished telling her about Grou, his demonic faction, and their grand scheme. Her reaction was anything but calm.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Cassandra paced around the clearing we hid in. "So, their plan is to destroy it so they can cast the world into eternal darkness. And that in turn will allow the Mazoku race to rule the world?" Cassandra asked.

"Pretty much," I replied, "And just think. If the Mazoku have dominance over this world, odds are they'll have no problem resurrecting Shabranigdo to his full strength."

Stunned, Cassandra remained speechless. I couldn't blame her. When I was in that cell I mulled over those thoughts for a while. After a day, she'd probably be where I was right now. Deciding to perk her up a bit and answer some of my own questions, I turned to Cassandra.

"So Cassandra," I said, causing her to look towards me in attention. "How exactly did you find me anyway?"

Just as I hoped, that super-cheerful smile came to her face. Silently, she reached behind her back and pulled out something from her cloak. Stepping towards me, she handed me a book. A gasp of amazement-slash-joy escaped me. It was my sorcery journal with the engraving of Ceiphied on it.

"My journal..."

"Yep," she chirped and handed me the book. "When you were kidnapped, no one knew what to do. Master Krots, the headmistress, and all the other teachers were all trying to find where you were with no luck. I told them I could help, but Master Krots forbid me to get involved."

Big surprise... our teachers were always leaving me out of the loop. Why not her?

"So I took action into my own hands. I found a way to find you using a spell of my own creation," she explained, "You know how you can find a lost object by fixating on its magical aura. Instead, I used a personal object of yours to locate yours instead. Pretty good, huh?"

I was impressed. Even for a grade-A student like her, I was the only one I knew to create his/her own spell. Her radiant smile was more than enough proof she did it herself.

"But how did you get here?" I asked.

"Well, you know that teleportation chamber that the teacher's are only allowed to use for urgent travel?" I nodded at her, knowing about it. The teleportation chamber was only for teachers. It was only used for very important travels that meant the most urgency. "I used the search spell in combination with the teleportation chamber. The next thing I knew, I was transported into the forest outside the ruins I found you in."

Well, that explained how Cassandra got here. "Okay, so... where are we?" I finally asked Cassandra.

"Don't know," she said simply.

A long silence lasted between us. That really wasn't the answer I wanted to know.

"Okay," I responded calmly, not about to grow panicky too quickly. "Well, how far are we from Saillune?" I asked.

"Don't know."

Okay. Now panic.

"You mean to tell me you teleported yourself out into the middle of nowhere without checking where you were going!?" I shouted at her, unable to believe that she didn't know where we were.

Cassandra turned to me with a snooty look on her face. "Well, sorry!" she said sarcastically towards me. "I was kind of in a rush from the teachers breaking into the chamber to stop me! Had I took my time to check where I was going, they would have caught me and you'd still be hanging off the wall like a wall ornament!"

I cast a heavy sigh. "Alright, I'm sorry," I apologized and held my hands up to yield to her curt response.

Sighing herself, Cassandra began to pace around again. "So now what do we do?" she asked with a touch of nervousness in her voice.

"The first thing we need to do is make distance between us and Grou's goons," I said as I looked around at the forest. The sound of owls and crickets acted normal, telling me there was no one else around. "By now they already gotten over the chaos of their base going up in smoke and have sent out search parties. We should stay away from the main roads until sunrise, and then see if we can find a town."

Still thinking over the situation, Cassandra paced around with her arms crossed in thought. "But how did Alpha cast a spell that was uncastable? It defies all logic," she mulled over the thought.

Answering her question, I calmly reached into the helm of my shirt and pulled out the Chaos Crystal around my neck. "It was this," I said simply and hung it out for Cassandra to see. "I snagged it after you vaporized Gigaros. Grou called it a Chaos Crystal. It's a solidified fragment of the Sea of Chaos."

Cassandra gasped as I mentioned 'Sea of Chaos'.

"That's what I said," I joked dully. "That's how Alpha was able to use the Gaav Flare. Using the crystal, it acts like a magical amplifier for Black Magic and draws upon the power of Dark Lords and Mazoku who were destroyed."

Slight awe was on her face as she looked at the bright red crystal. "From the Sea of Chaos?" Cassandra breathed, still trying to wrap her mind around that bit of information. "If that's true, then these crystals must be incredibly powerful."

"And I'm willing to bet that Grou gave several more of those crystals to his followers as well. In their hands, who knows what damage they'd do," I pointed out bluntly. Finally filled with just sitting around, I pushed myself off the bolder and jumped to the ground before Cassandra. "Since they have such a dangerous weapon, it's probably best that we hold on to one of them, just in case."

"But how do we use it?" Cassandra asked with concern.

"I think I can recall the spell that Alpha used before to activate it. The rest I just need to be cautious of."

Just then, the owls' hoots and the crickets' chirps suddenly stopped.

The sudden silence was enough to grasp our attention. The eerie stillness made it clear that something bad had come. Glancing at Cassandra, I could tell she knew as well. Then, both of us sensing a presence, we turned around.

Standing in clear sight in the gap between the trees was one of Grou's white-masked minions. No one else. The lone cloaked creep just stood there in the dark, looking at us under that emotionless mask. Still as the dead, the minion did not move from where he stood. His gaze remained on us as we recognized him. Truthfully, this was hardly a threat.

"What?" I asked to the masked man mockingly, "Only one goon. Oh please, now that's just insulting."

The minion didn't respond at first. But then suddenly, the sound of soft chuckling filled the air around us. Before I knew it I heard several chuckles around us, sending a chill down my spine. Both of us quickly looked around us, but no one else was there. The child-like giggles turned into clear laughs of malicious mischief.

Turning back to him, the only one here aside us was Grou's cloaked goon. The figure began to tremble, as if he was the one laughing... but he wasn't. The multiple laughs got louder as the stranger shuddered, causing Cassandra and I to step back.

Then in a sudden motion, the stranger threw open his cloak. In a frightful eruption, several gold creatures flew out of the cloaked minion. They screamed those horrible laughs as they appeared, jumping all over the place.

"Brow Demons!" I cried, finding the cloak they jumped from go limp and fall onto the ground empty.

What a dirty trick! The cloaked minion was actually several smaller demons sharing the same costume.

The Blow Demons had surrounded us on all sides. No taller than our lower legs, they looked like a cross from an imp and a lizard. Their hides were gold in color and had frills on the sides of their faces. On top of that, they were known to be able to cast common attack spells. Really nasty buggers.

Trapped in the circle of the fiends, they laughed with those high-pitched voices. "We found them," one of the pests hissed. "Master Grou will be pleased."

"Ooh, a tasty little girl," another one chuckled, his gaze set on Cassandra. Cassandra flinched at the sound of that. "Can we eat her?"

"Sounds yummy," a third one squeaked, "Just make sure the boy's unscratched or Master Grou will have our heads."

With a shrill cry, they leaped right at us from all sides. "Here we come, ya little brats!" they screeched together.

Little?! Look who's talking, you shrimps among shrimp!

Just as they charged, I felt Cassandra grab hold of my cloak. "Levitation!" she chanted.

With her spell, I jumped up as she did. No sooner had our feet left the ground, we were sent upward into the air. The next thing I heard were the startled cries as the Blow Demons below landed. WHAM! The annoying pests crashed head-on into each other, tumbled into a large pile below our feet.

"I believe it's your turn," Cassandra reminded me as she held on to me, keeping me airborne as well.

"Okay," I said and began chanting a spell. Speaking it, I held my hand out below towards the Blow Demons. "Dynast Breath!"

Casting the Black Magic spell, a pentagram appeared in the clearing with the pile of pests in the center. The next moment, there was a small flash and the demons were incased in a thick crystal of ice, frozen forever in a rather humorous position. No sooner had I had the Blow Demons on ice, Cassandra gently levitated us back to the now iced ground.

"We should leave now," I warned and turned for the forest, "before more come after us." Heading my words, Cassandra followed and we continued to travel through the thick forest.

***

After a very tiring night of running around the forest, morning finally came. The sun was the closest thing familiar to home at that moment, so we accepted it without complaint.

For the whole time after leaving those miniature ice sculptures behind us, we kept trekking through the forest. Most of the night, we kept off the main road just in case Grou's men were thinking we'd run for the road. Taking an extra precaution, I slapped a protection spell on the Chaos Crystal we had. I'd figure if Grou realized that we took one of them, he could use the others to locate us.

As soon as the sun rose, we happily found a highway and decided to take it instead of traveling blindly through the woods. With any luck, we'd find someone on the road that could help us. If not, it would surely lead us to a town where we could rest. Plus, I had bet that Grou's minions wouldn't attack in broad daylight so recklessly. But that still didn't guarantee anything.

So there we were, traveling down the dirt road under the light of day. The birds chirped happily and the wind was against our backs, making my cloak blow like a cape behind me. It was so peaceful out here, until...

"WAAHHHH!" Cassandra cried pathetically. The priestess was hunched over her knees with a pouting face and complained to the sky. "I'M TIRED, I'M HUNGRY, AND I NEED A BATH!"

Sigh...!

"Cassandra, I'm sorry but we really must keep going," I said as calmly as I could, looking over my shoulder to her. "If we stay here, we'll be easy pickings for them. We're already taking a risk traveling the roads. The best thing for us to do right now is find a town before night fall."

Giving a groan of disappointment, Cassandra slowly got back to her feet. I wasn't about to lie about it. Despite my determination, I was wiped out too. Running through the forest all night with no sleep and no food can do a lot of harm to the body. I was lucky that complaining was all Cassandra was doing.

"Hey, Zane," Cassandra called behind me. I turned around again to face her. "Remember how you said they'll attack us again?"

"Yeah," I replied simply.

Cassandra seemed hesitant all of a sudden and cast her eyes to the ground. Her cheeks were flushed as if she was embarrassed. "Well, you see..." I gave her an unsure look as she paused. As she talked, she dragged her foot through the dirt of the road. "...when they do attack, I'm going to have to stay out of the battle because... the truth is... my powers won't be working for a while."

I fell speechless as I looked at her, my jaw slacked open.

"Is that a problem?" she then suddenly said with that overly-cheerful attitude.

Duh! It's a BIG problem!!!

"YES, that's a problem!!!" I cried out in shock, "What ya mean your powers wont work?!"

Giving a sigh herself, Cassandra cupped her hand. "See for yourself," she sighed and held her hand towards the side of the road. "Fireball!" she shouted.

I braced myself for the loud bang of an explosion. But nothing. No sooner had Cassandra shouted the spell, not even a small flame appeared. I felt myself gawked stupidly at the weak spell, unable to believe it.

"You see," Cassandra said meekly.

"How could you lose your powers at a time like this?" I asked in disbelief.

"Look," she said and cast her gaze away. The blush of embarrassment was clear on her face. "I don't want to go to into it, but I just won't be able to use any powerful magic beyond a lighting or levitation spell for a couple of days or so. I'm sorry."

This was just ridiculous. How could Cassandra's magic go on the fritz and at a time like this? As much as I hated her super-perkiness, we stood more of a chance as a team than alone. The only reason we survived this long was because we worked together. So why would Cassandra lose her powers. Neither Grou nor his minions had cursed her, so her powers couldn't have been sealed. The only other way a person's magic could be severely decreased would be because of one's physical condition.

Even though we were tired and hungry, we weren't in so bad a condition that it would affect our magic. The only possible thing I could think of that would have Cassandra's magic go away would be if she...

Ohhhh... I see. So that's it.

A sigh escaped me as I figured it out. "Oh, I get it," I said with a nod of my head and crossed my arms. "That time of the month."

Cassandra's face lit up like a ripened tomato. "EXCUSE ME!?" Cassandra shrieked.

"It's that time of the month that girls get so embarrassed about," I said nonchalantly, "When the priestesses' and sorceresses' powers go a little loopy."

BONK!

Ouch! Cassandra gave me a hard hit on the head. No sooner had she did, she grabbed me by the helm of my cloak and yanked me to her face. "Is that a guy's excuse for EVERYTHING about girls!?" she shouted right in my face angrily.

"C-Calm down, will you?" I asked, startled. "There's no reason to get all moody about it."

Apparently, I said the wrong thing as she stuck her face further towards me. "Oh, shut up!" she snapped, "And how do you know about 'that time of the month' anyway?"

Taking a deep breath, I gave her a clam, yet dull look. "Do I look like an idiot?" I asked her rhetorically, trying to get her to calm down. "Some of us actually paid attention in Health Class."

With a huff and a pout of her lips, Cassandra let go of my cloak and let me take a step back. Sighing, I loosened my cloak after feeling like she'd choke me to death. "When I took health class, they taught us how a person's physical condition can affect their sorcery," I explained to her. All the while, her scornful look and blush didn't fade. "The teacher just happened to mention during a girl's... you know... their powers seriously decrease."

After hearing me, Cassandra just turned on her heels and turned her back to me. "Yes, well you shouldn't have been so blunt about it," Cassandra said with a pout. "Besides, it could have been anything?"

"But that is it," I asked her knowingly, "isn't it?"

With a growl, Cassandra turned around angrily. "Well, it's rude to assume such a thing!" she cried with embarrassment quivering in her voice. She then turned around again, giving me the cold shoulder. "To assume is highly unjust and I, a hero of Justice shall not tolerate such rude behavior."

"Had you just come strait out and tell me, I wouldn't have to assume!" I told her sternly.

"Oh, who asked you?" Cassandra spat, turning around and stuck her face at me. "We'll see if I come to save your butt again!"

Sigh... That time of the month, alright.

At that moment, a sudden rustle came from the brush aside the road.

Snapped back into attention, we turned ahead of us, further up the road where it came from. Several figures suddenly jumped out from the sides of the road, blocking the path. Surprised, I skidded a foot back and kept Cassandra behind me. Were they another group of Grou's goons?

"Okay, Hand over your money!"

Whew. Just a band of brainless bandits.

Though they weren't Grou or his men, these guys still looked tough. And touch was an understatement. The gang of bandits that stood before us were all beast men. Most of them were well-built werewolves along with some lizard men thrown into the mix. All had swords and knives in their hands... er, claws... OH WHATEVER!!

"Well what do you know," one of the werewolf bandits spoke up as they saw us. "Two little kids all alone in the forest. Talk about easy pickings."

Keeping on guard, we held our ground. Cassandra hid behind me, not surprising considering her powers were on the blink. "Should we fight them?" Cassandra whispered to me.

"Wait Cassandra," I told her quietly so the beastly bandits wouldn't hear. "From what I can tell, these guys aren't involved with Grou. Let's just try to reason with them." Acting cautiously, I slowly walked towards the blockade of bandits as Cassandra tagged along behind me.

Surprised on our approach, the beast men held up their blades towards us. "Hold it right there," a brown werewolf growled, quite possibly the leader of the gang. Stepping up to me, he kept his sword posed. "You're not going anywhere."

While the bandits chuckled amongst themselves as the boss confronted me, I just kept a calm face as Cassandra stood behind me. Now calm, she too remained composed. "Sir," I spoke to begin politely, "I pretty much get what you want from us."

"You do, do you?" the brown werewolf smirked as he looked at us. "Well, that makes things a lot easier." Still holding his sword, he held out his other paw towards us. "Now hand em' over and will let you go."

I sighed as I looked to the werewolf. "I'm sorry, we're just kids," I spoke and looked at him. The boss werewolf and his henchmen behind him gave me a confused look and the boss pulled away his paw. "We have nothing of value. Robbing us would gain you nothing, so you might as well just let us pass."

The wolf smirked at my words, possibly seeing something amusing out of it. "Sorry kid, but I can't do that," he said with a smirk. Raising his sword, he scratched the side of his mussel with his blade. "You see, we have a reputation to keep. We just can't let anyone walk through here without first paying our toll."

Still scratching his mussel with his sword, he looked us over. My gaze grew stern as a smirk came to his mussel. Just then, he lowered his blade to his side and reached over to me. At first I thought he was going to attack, but instead he swung an arm around my shoulder and pulled me off the side. "Hm, I tell you what kid," he said to me in a growl and held me close to him, as if I was an old friend. I gazed at him cautiously, feeling rather uncomfortable about this guy. "How about if you give us, say an hour or two alone with your girlfriend over there," he said as he stole a glance over at Cassandra, "I'll let you pass." With his words, other smirks and lewd comments began to sprout up from the other beast men as well.

You've got to be kidding...

"I beg your pardon!?" Cassandra yelled, hearing the appalling proposal. Jumping in front of the werewolf leader, Cassandra got right in his face about it. "No way will I perform those kinds of services for scoundrels like you!"

The werewolf bandit removed his arm around me, allowing me to step to the side as Cassandra shouted at him. All the while, his band of bandits just looked at Cassandra dumbly in confusion. She was giving that wolf an earful. "Forget it! No way! Uh-huh! Never! Not going to happen...!"

"Okay. Take her," I said.

" WHAT!!!" Cassandra screamed at me. The eyes of the watching bandits went wide with surprise.

Jumping up to me, Cassandra once again grabbed the helm of my cloak. She shook me back and forth angrily as if she was trying to choke me. "You jerk! Why would you agree to that?! Why I outta...!" she yelled in my face.

I couldn't help myself but laugh as she shook me and yelled. I loved it when she was the one to get steamed. "Stop it! I was kidding," I coughed out as she shook me. Hearing me, Cassandra stopped shaking me and let me go with a small push.

"I apologize, sir," I said and gave the brown werewolf leader a smug smirk of confidence. "But I'm afraid I can't in good conscious leave my friend into your custody."

"Those are some big words there, little boy. We're just humble bandits," the boss growled as his gaze grew sterner on me. "Care to rephrase?" he asked.

"I'm saying there's no way in hell you're taking her!" I spat loudly, making my point clear to the hard-headed bandit.

With a snarl, the boss werewolf jumped back to his posse of bandits. "You little brat! How bout' we just take her and leave you in pieces?!" he growled loudly. The other bandits behind him eagerly growled as well.

"You can try," I said with a teasing smirk.

The brown werewolf's teeth showed as he gave a hateful snarl at me. "Alright boys, get em!" At the sound of his war cry, the band of beast men came running for us.

With Cassandra behind me, I quickly began to chant a spell. Concentrating the best I could on all the bandits, I hurried to juggle my energies just right. With the image clear in my mind, I held my hands in a ninja sign, focused on my targets, and then let it go.

"Hello there, boys."

The bandits suddenly came to a screeching halt a yard away from us. Appearing in front of them was a beautiful young, half-naked woman with long blond hair. Mere inches away, the beast men stood there dumbly with their eyes bulging and mouths drooling. The thought of where she came from probably didn't even cross there mind.

"You don't want that little girl," she said lustfully. Being seductive, she barely ran a finger under one of the werewolves' chin. "I always liked beastly men..."

"Burst Rondo!" I cried.

While the bandits drooled over my Illusion spell, I threw my hands out and fired an array of balls of light. Shooting forth, they converged where the bandits were huddled around, passed through the illusion girl and exploded. Shouting, the bandits were sent flying backwards on the road, sending them tumbling over one another.

Gotta love the Fireball Fake Out. Normally to cast a simultaneous illusion spell and attack spell is practically impossible. I had learned to juggle the energies just enough to cast a Fireball spell with an illusion spell, but the illusion could only affect one person. In this case, I had my illusion spell affect all the bandits but that only allowed me to cast a lower-level attack spell. Not as strong, but effective.

I'm starting to think that adults are very vulnerable to this spell combo.

"Zane," Cassandra asked. She gave me a suspicious glare at me after she saw the beast men's lustful reaction, minus the half-naked illusion. "What was that illusion?" I just gave her a nervous chuckle, trying to dismiss the question.

At that time, the werewolf boss and his men finally got to their feet. Angry and startled snarls and growls came from them as the looked at me. Confusion was etched on the boss's mussel.

"Just like bandits and perverted werewolves," I quipped with a shake of my head as if to pity them, "thinking with their balls instead of their brains."

The bandit leader gave a terrifying snarl of anger. His eyes practically flashed as he bared his teeth. "Augh! That's it!" he growled with fury. With his sword held high and with wolf-like speed, he sprinted towards me. "Prepare to DIE!"

Keeping my smirk, I held up my hand and another ball of light appeared in my palm. Even sprinting for me I didn't flinch and kept chanting my spell. With each step he sprinted for us, the ball of light began to spark with energy as I raised it higher above me. "Thunder...!"

"Hold it."

The sudden voice stopped the sprinting werewolf dead in his tracks, his eyes wide in a dumbfounded expression. The brown werewolf quickly turned around, as did all of his goons. Surprised myself, my spell grew smaller and flickered out as I looked to who spoke.

From the side of the road was a person in the shadows of the trees. No sooner had he got our attention did he step out into clear view. The person who stepped out was a man, looking about an age past twenty-three. He wore a worn out brown cloak that flowed around his upper body like a cape which hid his arms. Most of his face was hidden in the shadow of a large hat he wore on his head. A long braid of brown hair fell down his back. He wore a light-weight green pants that matched the tone of his cloak. And at his side was a broadsword sheathed at his hip. His whole appearance made him look like a wandering avenger.

Slowly, his cape moving around him like a ghost, he stepped into the road behind the bandits. "Hmph, what's wrong?" the mysterious man asked as he glared at the bandits from under his hat. The bandits stared crossly at him. His tone was cool and calm as if the beast men were no more than common flies. "The bandits in this region so weak they need to rob a couple of kids?"

I swear I thought I saw steam come out of boss's ears as he heard the man's comment. Furious, he raised his sword in his direction. His gang followed as they too grew angry at the stranger. "Mind your own business, smart-ass!" the brown werewolf growled out. "Who are you anyway?"

The stranger just stood there. I could see a stern expression from under the shade of his hat. "You're not even worthy to utter my name," he said. And he finished talking I heard the sound of light clang from him. Of him reaching the hilt of his sword.

Snarls hissed among the bandits as they heard him. "So you wanna pick a fight, eh?" the boss growled. "We were gonna kill the kid, but we'll tear you to ribbons first! Get em, boys!"

With loud snarls and cries, the werewolves and lizard men charged at the stationary man. Despite their advance, he didn't flinch or move. One of the lizard men were the first to reach the cloaked stranger and was prepared to strike with his sword.

Just then, the front of his cloak flipped up and there came a sudden flash of metal. It was so quick I barely saw it. The next moment, the lizard man fell to the ground out cold while the man held his broadsword out. Still charging, the bandits came for him.

I couldn't believe my eyes as he fought. The stranger was moving about the road so fast with his sword his moves and slashes were blurs. One after another, he struck them with his sword. His sword even sliced through the blades of their own swords and daggers and then it cut into them.

The fight was practically over in twenty seconds. With all of the bandits scattered around the road, the only one left was the boss of the now deceased gang. He now stood alone before the nameless swordsman with his slain buddies around him. I couldn't tell weather the big wolf was shaking in anger or fear. Slowly, the swordsman approached.

Either out of pure instinct or complete idiocy, the brown werewolf charged forth with his sword prepared to strike. As he sprinted towards him, the stranger brought his sword to the side in preparation. With a loud roar, the werewolf was about to strike until the man swiped his sword.

The swipe of his sword didn't even make contact, yet out of the blade's movement alone the werewolf got struck. The blade almost seemed to create a shockwave as the werewolf thief was sent flying off the road and smack hard into a tree. The last thing the wolf got out of his mouth was a low groan as he fell back to the ground.

Cassandra and I stood in complete awe as the stranger got rid of the bandits with such swiftness. It was if he moved like the wind. He had finished off those bandits in no time at all. After he saw the last breath of the bandit die away, he bowed his head as if in a prayer of respect and then turned to us.

I felt myself stiffen as he approached, finally wondering if he was with Grou or not. After stepping over the beastly bandit corpses, he approached us. He tipped up the helm of his hat, revealing his face. He had brown eyes and a face one would find handsome. And from his once battle-stern face, he gave us a kind smile.

"Are you two alright?" he asked us in his deep voice.

Well that answered my question. Anyone who's first words asks for your well being can't be that bad.

At that time, Cassandra came out from behind me. "Yeah, we're fine," I said as I looked up at the grand swordsman. "Thank you for saving us."

"It was my pleasure," he said coolly as he sheathed his sword. "Forgive me being forward, but what are you two doing out here?"

I decided to answer with the most truthful, smallest of detailed response as possible.

"Well," I said hesitantly, "We're lost."

I wasn't about to tell a complete stranger I held Ceiphied's soul and was on the run from Mazoku. It freaked me out enough as it was. He didn't need to know that much.

"I see," he said and narrowed his eyes at me. He must have known that I wasn't being truthful because that look showed suspicion. After that, he lightened up and gave a calm smile.

"Well, nonetheless you two shouldn't be traveling by yourselves," the swordsman said as he looked at Cassandra and me. "Do you two live around here?"

Another pause followed as I looked over to Cassandra. She did the same towards me, both of us unsure what to say. Cassandra turned back to the cloaked swordsman with a nervous chuckle. "Actually no," Cassandra said, "You see, we're from the Saillune Sorcery Academy."

Geez! Cassandra had no sense of the word TACT!

The stranger's face showed a hint of surprise. "Sorcerers? At your age?" he spoke, his tone impressed.

Well, no sense denying it. "That's right," I said, "I'm Zane Cosmon, and this is my friends Cassandra. We're sorcerers and priests in-training."

Not to brag to you, but considering the fact I had cast many successions of the Blast Bomb spell, a rather uncommon spell amongst sorcerers of even the highest level, I probably was being a bit too modest when I said 'in-training'. Don't give me that look. I have a lot to be proud of for my studies. How else is a future, world renowned sorcerer supposed to feel?

"Did you say you were from Saillune?" the stranger asked, perking my interest. Slight concern was on his face as he spoke. "What are you two doing so far away from home then?"

I almost jumped at his question. He talked as if Saillune was a foreign land. Cassandra's face lit up with concern as well. "Wh-What are you saying?" I stuttered, surprised. "Where are we? How far are we from Saillune?"

My shocked response caused the stranger to raise an eyebrow of concern at us. Then, he took a quick glance around the forest. His look changed, turning into a guarded one as he looked about. Then, he turned back towards us. "We should discuss this later," he said casually, "The forest isn't the best place for a lengthy discussion. There's a town not far from here. We shall speak of this then."

Whipping his cloak around, he turned around towards the end of the road. "Follow me," he said.

"Hold on one picking minute!" I cried out, surprised. At my shout, the stranger turned around to me. "Why should we go with you? I'm sorry, but we were taught better than to go with strangers."

Looking at me from over his shoulder, he grew a small smile at my cautious guard. Confused, Cassandra looked from me to the stranger, as if torn between my judgment and him.

"My name is Rionos..." the stranger spoke.

My guard dropped as he uttered those words. Cassandra and I looked at him, slightly confused. Still with his kind smile, he smirked at us. "Now that you know my name, we can't be strangers, can we?"

My jaw dropped in surprise as he pulled a fast one on me.

"I assure you, you have nothing to fear of me," the swordsman, Rionos spoke calmly. "It wouldn't be right for me to just leave you two out here. Unless of course, you want to take the risk of another bandit attack alone."

Smartass...

Just as I was about to respond to Rionos's slyness, Cassandra jumped in front of me. "Oh, no Mr. Rionos," she said happily, giving her best cutesy act (you know what I mean). "Thank you. We'd really appreciate it if you could escort us to the next town."

Giving a nod to Cassandra, Rionos tipped the rim of his large hat in our direction and then turned to the road ahead of us. "Please follow me. The village isn't far," he said casually.

Before long, we left the road littered with bandit corpses behind us out of sight. Leading the way was our new acquaintance, Rionos, as Cassandra and I followed a safe distance behind him. As we walked I kept my eye on him. Despite he saved us, he was all too willing to help us. I wasn't one to question moral, but still, after everything we've went through, I never hurts to be on guard.

"That swordsman seems suspicious," I said softly to Cassandra, keeping my voice out of ears-reach from the swordsman in question. He just kept walking down the road a few feet away. "And he seems quite interested in us."

"You think so...?" Cassandra replied almost wearily.

"Yeah," I said softly. "He seems like a nice guy, but I got the feeling he was hiding something from us." My eyes still remained on the swordsman cloaked back. "There's just something about him," I struggled to explain, "...something... something..."

"Dreamy," Cassandra cooed.

Eh, WHAT...?

Thrown off by Cassandra's coo, I turned around. Her eyes were glued to the swordsman as well, but her eyes seemed to sparkle with allure. Her mouth was slightly ajar with awe and wonder. All the while, she held her hands as if in prayer. Hook line and sinker, people. She'd fallen head over heels over the guy.

"Oh, god..." I groaned as I saw her gaze dreamily at Rionos.

"He's so gallant," Cassandra barely spoke in a whisper, "and he risked his life to save us. Wasn't he fantastic?"

Casting a gaze back at the swordsman, I relived his fight against the bandits. His mysterious swordplay still etched in my mind. "Well, it wasn't that impressive..."

Cassandra suddenly grabbed me by the collar. "Oh what do you know!?" Cassandra shouted, almost offended. Then no sooner, she let go and returned to her love-struck tone.

"That mysterious cape and hat, that long hair and tall stature, that wonderful smile," she went on as she fixed her eyes back on the swordsman who saved us. It was almost painful for me to see Cassandra find such admiration to the guy when we didn't even know squat about him. "I could tell that he was dazzled by my beauty, Zane," she mewed happily, "It's every girl's dream to be rescued by a knight in shining armor."

"_And then she married the prince and lived happily ever after..._WAKE UP!" I shouted while giving her a crossed stare, shaking her from her daydreaming.

Hearing our commotion, Rionos looked over his shoulder towards us while he walked. "Is everything alright back there?" he asked.

Just about to try and yell at me, Cassandra quickly stopped and jumped up in attention to the older swordsman. May I mention much older swordsman than our love-sick priestess here, thankyouverymuch.

"Oh, no Mr. Rionos," Cassandra said with pure admiration. "We're just talking, that's all. We're sorry if we're disturbing you, Mr. Rionos."

A light chuckle came from the swordsman as he walked on. "No trouble at all, young miss," he said courteously. He flashed us his kind smile again. "You know, you two can call me Rion if you'd like."

"Oh, okay Rion," Cassandra chirped all too enthusiastically.

"Yeah, sure," I agreed simply and nodded to Rion. "Rion it is,"

As Rion turned back to the road before us, Cassandra gave a dreamy sigh as she watched him.

I hate you, cupid.

***

Hurray! We're saved! Before long we had finally reached the foothills of a nearby village. The town was nothing fancy, just a small collection of wooden buildings. But after my little sleepover at Grou's and running all night through the woods, I wasn't about to nick-pick compared to the imperial style of Saillune.

No sooner had we gone off the road, Rion immediately led us to the nearest tavern in sight. Either we were that obvious, or his expert wilderness-sensory skills could tell Cassandra and I was starving. The sound of townsfolk around me was like music to my ears. I needed a taste of normality after being held captive by demons.

As people chatted around us about common affairs, Rion, Cassandra and I sat at a round table near the center of the tavern. Despite since we were indoors, Rion never removed his hat. "I want you two to order anything you want," Rion offered kindly. "It's my treat. You must be famished."

"All right!" I cheered, about to make the most out of this sweet deal. "Waiter, one extra-large pancake platter for three and a large pitcher of orange juice please!"

He offered a hand, I took the arm. He-he-he.

And before long, a tower of pancakes was placed right at the center of our table with a large pitcher of orange juice near by. To my surprise, Rion didn't seem to have a problem with it. The second the pancakes hit the table, Cassandra and I dove into them. Pulling several onto our plates, we ate up happily.

As we ate, Rion just watched us eat with that kind smile on his face. After eating my first pancake, which took about five seconds or so, I looked up at him.

What? I was held captive for DAYS! You'd be snarfing down food too if you were in my shoes here!

"Don't you want any?" I asked Rion through a full mouth.

He just gave a light-hearted chuckle at my question. "No thank you," Rion replied, "Don't worry about me. You two just enjoy yourselves."

I immediately stopped eating my pancakes to give him a stern look. Why would he want us to eat this and not him? If he's trying to trick him, I'll Blast Bomb him to next week!

A chuckle suddenly came out from the calm swordsman. "Don't worry, I didn't drug it or anything," Rion said in a calming manner, trying to ease my thoughts.

"Huh? I didn't say anything," I said, rather surprised he'd suspect what I was thinking.

"You didn't have to," Rion implied. He then raised his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. "I could see it in your eyes."

I wanted to punch that smug smirk of his in. "Look, you can relax. I assure you I'm not your enemy," Rion spoke calmly, looking eye to eye with me.

The steady look in his eyes was enough to tell me he was telling the truth. But still, I couldn't help but feel that there was something about him he wasn't telling us. Despite his kindness, he seemed irregularly guarded.

"All right then," I said, finished chewing another bite of my pancakes. "I guess I can accept that for now."

Seeing that I gave him the benefit of the doubt, he smiled and reached into his tattered brown cloak. "Okay, perhaps now is a good time to discuss your question earlier," Rion said as he drew out a rolled out parchment. Cassandra stopped eating too as Rion brought out the paper. He moved the pitcher of juice out of the way and then unrolled it out onto the table for us to see.

On the parchment was a map of our continent. It was a large piece of land with our known region, along with the outer region once known two hundred years ago as the outer world.

Before that time, people of Saillune and other kingdoms in the north were sealed in by a magical barrier created by five Mazoku. These Mazoku were descendents of Shabranigdo himself. These five, after the war of the monster's fall over a thousand years ago, created the barrier and isolated the land from the outside world. But then two hundred years ago, it was said that a brave sorceress defeated Gaav the Demon Dragon King, and the strongest of the five, Hellmaster Phibrizo. And with their defeat, the barrier was broken.

I'll go into detail about this later, okay? You came here for news, not history.

"Okay, take a look here," Rion said and pointed to a city up north, a few miles from the coast. Cassandra and I leaned closer to the map. "This is Saillune, where you said you've came from. Correct?" We nodded simply. Rion's eyes grew firm with seriousness. He then dragged his finger southward down the map. "Well, right now, we are here." He then stopped his finger on a dot far south on the map, almost at the edge of the page.

"WHAT!?" I cried in disbelief. Suddenly standing up from my chair, I plated my arms on the table to lean closer to the map. My shout accidentally caught some eyes from the customers near by. Cassandra too gasped in surprise. We were nowhere near Saillune. "How'd we land in the outer world?!"

"That's what I'd like to know," Rion said. He now had his serious stare at me. I felt like I was on the spot again when I was confronted for doing something bad at school. I felt my throat tighten with nervousness. His gaze also went to Cassandra, who sat there in silent worry. "What are you two doing so far away from Saillune?" he asked knowingly, "You're a bit young to go journeying off on a pilgrimage."

The sarcasm in his tone felt like he was prying to get the truth out of me. A nervous chuckle came out. "Well, uh...we're... on a sacred quest and..." I tried to get out.

"Do not insult me with lies, boy," he snapped, keeping his tone low so the customers, who had gone back to their meals, couldn't hear. "I know what hunts you."

My body went rigid with nervousness at his words. He was beginning to creep me out a bit. Cassandra too became quiet, unsure what to do. "Y-You do?" I whispered meekly.

"Yes," Rion said in a calm tone, "You two reek of Mazoku,"

Great. So much for subtlety.

Cassandra and I glanced at each other, unsure what to do. Our faces could show nothing else but the guilt of us caught in the act. "I'm sure you have your reasons for keeping this to yourselves," Rion said in an understanding way. He then rolled up the map and slipped it back into his cloak. "But I can't ignore the fact that you two are involved with demons and not do anything about it. Now, won't you please tell me why Mazoku are after you?"

I took a long, deep breath, regaining my nerve for a moment. Cassandra looked to me with her hopeful gaze. "We should tell him," Cassandra offered, already trusting the swordsman. "After all he's done for us he has the right to know."

Another sigh of grief escaped my lips. "Alright..." I said and turned to Rion. Cool as ice, he waited there for me to speak. "The one their after is me," I said simply, getting strait to the point. "To sum it in a nutshell, I have this special power that the Mazoku race wants. Because of this, they want to capture me alive until they can find a way to safely extract it from me. Cassandra here is just accidentally involved for trying to help me."

Now dropping his stern look at me, he nodded in a calm gesture. "I see," he said rather easily. It surprised me that he took this news so calmly.

"I was just afraid of involving anyone else in my troubles," I said solemnly. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt over me. That's why I didn't want to say anything."

Sprouting a playful smirk, Rion turned to Cassandra. "But your girlfriend seems to want to help you," he said.

My nerves snapped with irritation. "She's not my girlfriend!" I cried, my face turning red.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Cassandra shouted too, her face equally red.

Rion laughed lightly as he saw our reactions. "Relax, I was only teasing," he cooed, trying to lighten the tension around us. "But why has she still decided to fight along side you?"

Suddenly, taking her cue, Cassandra jumped up from her seat. And, yet again, she made a heroic pose and pointed her finger out somewhere into the distance. "Because I am a hero of Justice!" she said enthusiastically, "And as long as such evil schemes lure among us, I shall not waver! With the aid of my trusty sidekick, Zane, we shall vanquish all evils!"

Embarrassed, I found myself face down on the table, my head buried in my arms. "How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not your SIDEKICK!" I told her aloud while lifting my head up.

"Calm down, you two," Rion interrupted before it could become any uglier of a fight. Heeding his advice, Cassandra and I reluctantly returned to out seats. Feeling the sudden urge to bite something, I stuffed another chuck of my pancakes into my mouth.

"But anyway," I said while chewing the last bit of my food in my mouth. "Don't feel like you need to get involved. This isn't your fight, you know."

Closing his eyes, Rion gave his smile again. It was calm, as if no danger seemed to faze him. "I know it isn't my fight," he said nonchalantly, "But I want to get involved anyway."

Excuse me! Did you miss the point in what I said, pal!

"What?" I asked in surprise. Cassandra's eyes seemed to light up at Rion. "No you don't!" I warned him strongly, "Trust me! You don't know the kind of demons you're dealing with!"

Still he never wavered. "I appreciate your concern for my safety," he said calmly, "but I cannot allow two kids to tackle such dangers alone. I won't hear of it."

Suddenly, a thought entered my head why he was so calm about everything I said.

"Don't you worry," Rion said and gave the hilt of his sword a tap. "I've had my share of Mazoku over the years."

Surprise jumped through me, proving that my hypothesis was correct. "I knew it," I said, realizing what the swordsman was. "You're a Mazoku hunter, aren't you?" Rion just nodded in agreement.

"What's a Mazoku hunter?" Cassandra asked, confused by my words.

_ Okay, isn't she supposed to be the smart one?_

I turned around to Cassandra, surprised. "They're swordsmen who specialize in hunting down Mazoku," I explained, enthused that I actually found one. "I've heard rumors about them around the school, but I didn't think we'd actually meet one."

Rion brushed off the comment modestly, as if not wanting any praise. "Please, don't make such a deal about it," he said calmly. "I prefer to keep such things under wraps, if you understand."

_ That makes two of us._

"Oh, thank you so much!" Cassandra said with delight. Her eyes once again glimmered with admiration. I almost chocked on my orange juice at her love-sick attitude. "I can't tell you how much your assistance will help us."

Just then, his kind smile suddenly turned into a stern one. He darted his eyes to the door of the tavern. Confused with his reaction, Cassandra and I looked at him with concern. "What's wrong?" I was the first to ask.

At my question, I saw Rion reach for his sword underneath his cloak. "We have company," he said in a hushed tone. He kept watch of the door through the corner of his eye. "And it isn't good."

He must have sensed something. Brought to my senses, I immediately began to scan the area for presences. Ignoring those of the content customers around us, I sensed two outside that painfully stuck out. One had a surging anger and bloodlust, the other next to it was a chilly presence that sent a shiver down my neck. Now worried, I looked right for the door.

Before long, the door opened. Sticking his head inside was the furry face of a brown werewolf. My breath hitched at him. It was the leader of those bandits that Rion had slain earlier. My mind scrambled to figure this out. Wasn't he dead?

After stepping into the room, the beastly bandit leader's gaze finally landed on us. His eyes lit up to find us and he cast a snarl. "You!" he growled clear cross the room. I jumped up in fright as the werewolf pointed at me. The wolf's outburst caught the attention of the restaurant without fail. "There you are, you little runt!"

"Oh, I know who you mean!" I said cheerfully, trying to play dumb. Flashing a smile like Cassandra's, I tried to turn away as if I was shy. "There's some young wizard running amok around these parts. About my height, same outfit..."

"Shut up!" the werewolf snapped, causing my innocent act to fall apart before him. "Oh, I remember you alright! You're the one who blasted me away right before that guy killed me!" the werewolf snarled and pointed to Rion, who still only looked crossly at him through the corner of his eye.

At that point, everyone in the restaurant was watching us. Confused, Cassandra slowly leaned across the table to Rion. "Um, Mr. Rion? Didn't you kill him?" she asked hesitantly.

"That's what concerns me," Rion replied slowly as he turned more to the werewolf bandit. "I did."

The werewolf bandit snickered at our stumped looks. "Thought you'd seen the last of me, didn't you?" he said, raising his sword and scratched the side of his mussel. "But I've come back from the dead just for you!" He gave a creepy laugh, as if trying to scare us.

"Oh shut up!" I snapped, causing the werewolf to shut his yap in surprise. "You're anything but a threat, you perverted wolf! What a maroon! Can't find a girl of your own, so you try to grope any who pass by!" The girls in the room suddenly gasped as I said that. Looking at the angry werewolf, I thought I saw a flush of red from underneath the fur of his face.

But when I'd thought he'd erupt from anger, the werewolf just calmed down with a smile. "Heh, you won't be joking long, runt," he said smugly and eyed the three of us with a devious gleam. "I've brought someone who's been dying to see you." At that moment, the werewolf turned back to the entrance of the tavern. "Hey, boss!"

Boss?

The doors of the tavern slowly opened as, what was the second presence I sensed, entered. My eyes went wide at the sight of who it was. The flare of his red robe burned into my eyelids as he stepped into the room with the elegance of a high-priest. Standing tall, the person stepped into the tavern nonchalantly. It was one who I'd come to fear all too quickly. With his brown hair, and devilish beard, he looked at me with knowing eyes.

"So nice to see you again, my boy," the Mazoku said with a smirk.

"General Grou!" I shouted with shock and pushed myself up from my seat.

Cassandra, alarmed too, stood up from her seat beside me. She looked at Grou, under the shape of his hansom human appearance. "That's the Mazoku, Grou you were telling me about?" Cassandra asked in disbelief. "But he looks human."

"It's his human form, concealing his demonic one!" I quickly answered, getting my guard up at sight of the demon. "But despite his appearance, he's anything but human! Even Alpha was afraid of him!"

Hearing my words, Grou let out a small laugh. "Oh, come now," he cooed gently, "I'm not that terrible."

My gaze sharpened on Grou, slight fear grazing my body. "How did you find us?" I couldn't help but ask.

He answered with another chuckle, as if this whole chase was pure amusement for him. "Why, thanks to your friend here of course," he then turned to the werewolf bandit in front of him.

The wolf snickered as well. "Found me half-dead thanks to you. He resurrected me in exchange for sniffing you out," the werewolf boasted and pointed to his nose. Had I known he'd come back to life and smell me out, I would've blast him right in the nose. "And now thanks to him, I'm now stronger than ever."

"This fur ball's starting to give me a headache," I grumbled, rubbing my head. Aggravated by him, I pointed to the werewolf proudly. "Look, I don't know how strong you think you are, but you're no match for my full power."

"Isn't that cute," the wolf said, raising his sword. "A kid with self-esteem." The resurrected werewolf took a step towards us. "But it really won't matter anyway... because you're all gonna die!" he growled in a scary snarl.

Just then, Grou's hand came to the werewolf's shoulder, bringing him to a halt. "Have you forgotten our agreement?" Grou said, causing the werewolf to look back to him through the corner of his eye. The tone of Grou's words were chilling, causing the werewolf too show a hint of fear. "That boy is to be kept alive, understand?"

The werewolf gave a small growl. "Forgive me," the wolf apologized, yet still his angry gaze remained on us. "I'd forgotten that you wanted him alive. I'm so sorry."

Grou just then gave a reassuring pat on the wolf's shoulder, brushing off the offence. "Do as you want with the other two, but leave me the boy," Grou spoke and stepped forward as well.

"Not so fast," Rion interrupted. No longer sitting in quiet, Rion stood up from his seat as well, standing between us and the enemy. "These children are now in my care. I shall not allow either of you to bring harm to them." Rion said, his gripped hilt of his sword visible before them.

"How noble of you," Grou spoke calmly. He then stepped forward in front of the werewolf. "If there safety is all you're concerned about, then there is no need to fight. All I ask is for custody of the boy and I'll let the rest of you go."

Rion huffed at the Mazoku's offer. "I don't make deals with demons," he spoke coldly.

"Pity," Grou said simply, "Then we have no choice." Casting his gaze back to his werewolf companion, he nodded to him. "Take them."

"That's enough!" I looked to find that the voice came from a man, probably the tavern owner. Angry for them disrupting the whole place, the man quickly approached Grou. Part of me wanted to stop him, but my will refused to act. "If you're going to fight, take it outside! Get out!" He then reached for Grou's arm.

My eyes went wide with alarm. "No! Don't--!"

Suddenly, Grou threw up his arm at the man. In the blink of an eye, an unseen force had thrown the tavern owner backwards and sent him crashing into a table. Startled by the owner's crash, the entire tavern erupted in fright. Startled, the customers and staff quickly ran for the back door and those bold enough ran around Grou and his werewolf companion.

Before long, the entire tavern had emptied out. All Grou did was smile calmly as the sounds of panic died away. "Such pests aren't worth my time," Grou said and eyed us wickedly. "And here I thought cockroaches weren't allowed in here."

Just then, I felt the table jump as someone jumped up upon it. "Heartless fiend!" Cassandra cried. Standing high above on the table, she pointed down at our enemies with a fierce pose. Her eyes were burning with what she'd call 'righteous fury'. "How dare you hurt and frighten innocent people for your own pleasure! Prepare to feel my JUSTICE!"

With a fierce cry, Cassandra brought her hands together, her palms facing Grou and the werewolf. "FIREBALL!" she cried aloud fiercely.

A simple puff of smoke came out from her palms. The room stood painfully silent as everyone looked at Cassandra dumbly. "Oups," Cassandra squeaked, embarrassed, "I forgot..."

USELESS!

With a loud growl, the werewolf lunged across the floor towards us. With swiftness like the wind, Rion slipped behind the table and then lifted his foot against it. He kicked the table hard, causing Cassandra to fall off and sent it flying upward to meet our attacker. The werewolf and the table collided, only to have the piece of wooden furniture break into several pieces and scatter under the wolf's strength. Repelled by the shattering debris, the three of us scattered and jumped away from it.

Accidentally falling onto my rear, I skidded to a stop halfway across the room. On the other side of the room, I found Rion with his sword drawn, facing the werewolf. Cassandra stood a clear distance behind him, pretty much useless with her magic gone.

Getting back to my feet, I faced the front of the room. Not haven moved an inch, Grou still stood there with that stupid grin on his face. "So then," he asked, "Have you decided to surrender, or try your luck against me?"

I gave him a pissed-off glare. "The one thing you need to learn about me, creep," I spat and brought my hands together. With my spell in mind, my hands began to glow. "Surrender isn't in my vocabulary!"

With my anger rising high, I finished my spell. "Elmekia Lance!" A lance of light shot forth at Grou from my hands. Seeing it coming, Grou just stood there as it flew at him. Just then, he simply took a small step to the side, just out of the spell's path.

And then what happened was just plain stupid, and... well... dumbfounding. The moment it passed Grou's side, the Elmekia Lance suddenly circled around him and then shot back at me.

A simple word entered my brain. Duck!

Lunging to the ground, the spell just missed me as it shot at the back of the tavern. My spell simply shattered as it struck the meaningless room.

What the hell was that!? He had the ability to repel and reflect my own spells against me? How the hell can he do that? No school lessons prepared me for a foe like this.

Grou gave a snicker at my reaction as I got back to my feet. "Surprised?" he said smugly, "Care to give it another shot?"

He was teasing with me! How dare he?! The first thought in my mind was to Blast Bomb him to kingdom come. However, I didn't know the full extended of his power. Before I'd go all out into really fighting him, I'd have to attack him indirectly to at least try and bypass him reflecting my spells.

Keeping focus, I chanted up another spell. Grou continued to remain stationary. "Flare Arrow!" I shouted and fired my spells. Several arrows of fiery light shot out at Grou, coming at all sides. I had hoped that he couldn't throw back so many spell projectiles at once.

... Apparently, I was wrong. With out even moving a muscle, the arrows suddenly swung around Grou and flew right back at me. Seeing the arrows coming back, I quickly cast a counter-spell to protect myself against... well, myself. "Windy Shield!" Bracing my hands at the arrows, a bubble of wind surrounded me. The fiery arrows struck the shield, quickly dispersing against the swirling shield of wind.

One last tactic. Attacking him from all sides.

Dropping my shield, I quickly brought my hands together in concentration. I kept my eyes on Grou, watching for any sign of movement that could help me see a weakness. All the while, I chanted up another spell. One I've been waiting to try.

"Goz Vu Rou!" I shouted and spread my arms out wide. Suddenly, my shadow spread out in a wide wave, eclipsing the ground before me. Growing more, it seemed to pull itself off the floor into a three-dimensional form.

A foot note to you sorcerers in training. Goz Vu Rou is a spell which summons a shadow that can attack your opponent from both the physical and astral sides. Depending how you cast the spell, you can change the shape and direction on how the shadow attacks. In my case, I made it a huge wave that would attack Grou from the full front.

"And here I'd thought you'd do better," he said dully, almost making me fall over in shock. With my shadow wave only feet away, Grou raised a hand towards the wave and wiped it away like shooing a fly. At that moment, the wave of darkness halted as if it had hit something.

In a gentle, fluid motion, he moved his arm over his head. And to my shock, the Goz Vu Rou spell obeyed his gesture. Grou then brought his arm back and then shoved it in my direction, redirecting my spell at me and out of my control. He had not only the power to redirect my spells, but gain control of them too!

With his throw, he sent the dark shadow shooting out of the ground at me. Like a tidal wave, the flow of darkness shot up from the ground and quickly began to surround me. I gave a shout as he continued to exercise his control over the now physical shadow, using it to wrap around me like it was gift wrapping. I felt the shadow wrap around my legs, waits, and was tugging for my arms as I tried to pull away. Now I know why he was so dangerous. He was able to use an opponent's power against them.

"Resistance is futile, young knight of Ceiphied," Grou said as I tried to break free. A glint of chilling malice showed in his eyes. "Let darkness take you, and with it, the entire world!"

***

On the other side of the room, the fight between Rion and the werewolf goon had started with a bang. The sound of clashing swords rang through the tavern as the werewolf charged. Rion, remaining as cool as he always seemed to be, simply gave sparring blows, taking defensive slips away. Aggravated by the swordsman's defensive tactic, the werewolf continued to peruse relentlessly to strike him with his sword.

"Stay still so I can kill you!" the wolf snarled as he tried to snag Rion. Like that's gonna happen.

With equal swiftness as before, Rion stayed clear of the wolf's sword despite his speed. The swordsman was reserving his strength. It was clear as the werewolf began to pant in exhaustion from swinging his sword around. Rion probably hadn't used a single fraction of his strength yet.

Deciding to take small action, Rion suddenly entered a sprint after the werewolf. The two suddenly were charging head on, swords drawn and ready to collide.

Suddenly from the sidelines, a plate came flying across the field. With a painful crash, the dishware saucer smashed into the werewolf's face. The werewolf, startled, looked to find that on the sidelines of the battle was Cassandra. With her still cheery smile, she held another plate in her hand.

"You little bitch--!" the wolf snarled before Cassandra could say anything cunning.

Suddenly, the sudden plate smashing to his head had distracted him. The moment he'd glanced at Cassandra, Rion had ducked under the wolf's sword and was now right in line with his gut.

"Never let your guard down in a fight..." was all Rion said.

Slash!

Delivering his blow in a fluid pass across the wolf's flank, Rion made a large sword wound across the beast's belly. Nether person moved in the heat of that final blow. Rion still remained still, awaiting the werewolf to fall after the fatal blow.

Just then, the sound of the werewolf's chuckle touched the swordsman's ears. "Heh, is that all you got?" he growled. Rion then turned around, facing the werewolf's back as he stood up as well. The werewolf then turned to Rion with a smirk on his mussel. "That didn't even tickle."

Cassandra gave a clear gasp from the side as she saw it. On the werewolf's gut, the large gash was still there. Inside the gash wasn't blood, but a darkish substance that shifted inside the wound. Rion's eyes narrowed on the werewolf as the wound suddenly began to minimize. Before long, the wound had healed completely as if he'd never been struck before. All the while, the wolf smirked at Rion sickeningly.

"So that's how you survived," Rion deducted grimly. "You've become a Mazoku hybrid, combining a part of a Mazoku with your own body."

Raising his sword, the werewolf's smirk answered the swordsman's answer. "He-he-he. Not many other options on how to return from the dead, pal," the wolf snickered. With a howl, the werewolf charged forth at Rion head on.

Taking on the defense, Rion raised his sword, blocking the wolf's swings. Stepping back, Rion continued to watch the wolf as he attacked. It was if he was being pushed back as the werewolf clashed against his blade. The werewolf then darted around Rion, trying to strike from behind. Seeing him through the corner of his eye, Rion turned around quickly and managed to clash his blade against the wolf's.

Both blades pressed against one another, the werewolf and Rion squarely locked eyes. The wolf smirked in a sickening confidence as he pushed against Rion's sword, proving to have more physical strength. "Just give up," the wolf snarled at Rion, "You know as well as I do that normal methods are useless against a monster. I'm immortal now!" The werewolf-Mazoku hybrid shoved more, causing Rion's footing to skid back a step.

Still locked in his bind, Rion just continued to push against the wolf's blade. "It's true," Rion said plainly, his eyes still locked in a sense of seriousness. "Normal methods are useless against Mazoku, as you say..." Just then, the strength of Rion's push became firmer against the werewolf's. The look in his eye went from serious to fierce. "...However I am anything but NORMAL!"

Just then, Rion's shove against the wolf's sword became stronger, pushing it away significantly. With a strong shove, Rion had successfully knocked the werewolf's sword away, separating their swords. The werewolf's confidence turned to surprise to find that he had been overpowered.

Taking advantage of the moment, Rion moved like the wind again. In a flash he was at the werewolf's side. Seeing him, the wolf quickly raised his sword. However, Rion was too quick. As the wolf raised his sword, Rion brought his high over his head.

"Astral Vine!" he roared aloud. A flash like lightning struck the sword, creating a bright flash. The moment it disappeared, an aura of light had surrounded his blade.

He could cast spells too!?

Astral Vine was a spell that enchanted a sword or blade with magic. In doing so, the blade has the ability to damage astral creatures... such as Mazoku.

No sooner had he shouted his spell, Rion swung his sword down to meet his opponent's.

The sound of snapping metal rang through the tavern as Rion struck. Rion sword, weather it was from his spell or strength alone, had snapped the werewolf's blade in two, but not without striking the werewolf's side. The sword had struck halfway through the werewolf's body.

The werewolf gasped in shock as he felt the blow to his body. Frozen in pain and disbelief, the wolf could only give faint gurgles in his throat at the sword embedded into his Mazoku-body.

Rion's eyes stared right at the werewolf, filled with hatred this time. "This time when I kill you," he spoke in a hash whisper, "stay dead."

And with a final strike in a clear arc, Rion slashed his blade upward, slicing the werewolf down the middle from the waist up. A loud cry from the werewolf sounded throughout the room as the werewolf's body began to ripple like smoke. As Rion ceased moving from his final strike, the werewolf's body finally faded away into thin air.

A small grunt of pain came from Rion as the glow of his sword faded away. Taking a deep breath, Rion slowly stood up, his cloak wrapped around him dramatically.

"My hero!" Cassandra cheered where she'd been watching from the sideline.

Turning around, Rion flashed a small smile in her direction. "Come on," he said to Cassandra. "We need to help Zane."

"Right!" Cassandra said as they ran towards where I fought.

***

"Fisvan Rank!" I shouted just as the dark shadow was about to engulf me. With my cry, a brilliant aura surrounded my hands. Like Astral Vine, this spell empowered magic directly to my hands to fight astral creatures. A useful skill for hand-to-hand combat.

In this case, I was using it to attack the shadow. Spreading my hands out wide, I slashed my hands across the threads of darkness. My hands sliced through the living shadow like a machete through a jungle, freeing my arms and upper body. Spinning around, I slashed my hands in a full circle, reducing the shadow to a harmless mass.

As the shadow disappeared, I quickly ran for Grou. Still standing there, smirking, he waited for my attack.

I guess it's time to test this thing, I thought as I ran. Grasping the Chaos Crystal around my neck, I began to chant the spell I heard Alpha use to activate it.

_ _

Lords of Darkness dwelling in the depths of Chaos,

I call upon you. Bring back your power to this world once more.

And with that, the red crystal began to glow.

"Won't you ever learn?" Grou boasted calmly as I ran at him.

Feeling the power from the crystal spread into me, I began to chant another spell. If what I heard was true, then the crystal would not only resurrect power from past Dark Lords, but also amplified those still alive.

With one more sprint, I leapt at Grou with all my strength and brought my hands together.

About to catch my spell, Grou raised a hand out to do so... Only to be stopped as I grabbed his arm.

The look of surprise on General Grou's face was priceless. There I was, grasping both his arms tight, inches away from him. Finished with my spell, I gave him a cold look. At this range, I'd be damned if it didn't hit him.

"Dodge this!" I spat at him. "Blast Wave!"

The force of an explosion shook from my palms. At my words, Grou's body blew up right before me, spreading a vile cloud of smoke. The very explosion shook my feet, almost threatening me to fall over as Grou blew to pieces.

Blast Wave was a Black Magic technique. Making direct target with both hands on the target, the sorcerer can create an explosion that can open a man-size hole in a stone wall. The amplification spell of the Chaos Crystal was just for reassurance.

The thick smoke blocked my sight, so I stepped back out of it. I held my breath, hoping that done the trick. Slowly, the smoke began to distill. And through the smoke I saw something. I exhaled a sigh of disbelief, mixed with disappointment.

Through the smoke, I saw the form of Grou. At least, parts of him. Like the smoke, his body seemed to be a smoky form that slowly pieced itself together. Little by little, his body regenerated, forming his arms, hands, upper body, and last his head. As his face reappeared, an arrogant smirk was the first expression on his face.

"Well," he said amusingly, "That's one way to wake up in the morning."

You cannot be SERIOUS!

I hit him at point-blank range. That blast would have obliterated a guy, and he just recovered from it without a wince of pain. What the hell am I fighting here?

Grou then leisurely brushed some dust off his red robe, acting as if my attack did no more than sully his clothes. "I commend you for your ingenuity, attacking me with a direct blast to the body. Quite clever indeed," he said lightly, "However, a little explosion like that isn't enough to take down the likes of me. Surely you've known of that."

That arrogant monster was starting to make my blood boil. I hit him from every angle I could think of and it still wasn't enough. My last attack did make contact with him, but my spell only worked on physical objects. It wasn't enough to damage his Mazoku body.

The only spells I hadn't tried were the Blast Bomb. It was strong, but it probably won't be able to hurt him. The other one was the Dragon Slave. If I could hit him with it, it would surely kill him... Except the spell would probably destroy me and the whole town along with it.

Don't you love those options?

"Now then," Grou said, "Time for me to show you one of my own techniques." With that, he raised his hand at me.

Suddenly from above me in a solid circle, red beams of lasers appeared, frozen in the air. All of them were poised at me. My face lit up with dread.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you," Grou teased, smirking at my face. "But it will definitely hurt." He then gave a sharp snap of his fingers. With his snap, the lasers came down at me. With no time to cast a counter-spell, I was trapped in the deadly rain. I braced myself as best as I could.

Something suddenly blew past my side as if something had whizzed by me. The sound of the falling lasers soon followed by a loud cling. Opening my eyes, I looked to find before me was Rion. With swift speed so unbelievable and his sword drawn, he deflected all the lasers with his sword alone. In the end, he stood there in a cool pose with his sword as he deflected the last of Grou's attack.

For the first time since I saw him, Grou grew a grumpy look on his face as he saw Rion. He scowled at his interference. "Get out of my way, young man," Grou warned, "Oppose me at your own peril."

"You know I can't do that!" Rion said bravely and raised his sword at Grou.

"That's right!" said a cheery voice. Jumping to my side, Cassandra had joined us. Despite her magic being on the fritz, she still stood proudly. "As long as our friend is in danger, we'll never abandon him! That's a concept that a monster like you will never understand!"

Relieved to finally have back up against this guy, I took a breath and faced Grou. "Grou," I spoke clearly, "I'll never let you have my power! I refuse to let you plunge this world into darkness!"

Once again, Grou recovered his stupid smirk. A light-hearted chuckle escaped his lips and he placed a hand on the other side of his face, as if he would crack up in laughter. "Mighty words for such a pipsqueak," he laughed, "How comical."

My muscles then tightened at his words.

A word of warning: Never, ever, EVER call me a pipsqueak.

"Pip... squeak...?" I grumbled.

Looking at me, Grou's face lightened up. He seemed even more amused now. "Oh, so you don't like being called pipsqueak?" Grou's smirked even more as he saw my anger grew. My hands had balled up into fists by now. "What would you prefer I reference you to? Midget? Squirt? Small-fry? Shorty?"

Temper... Temper...

"AAUGGH! THAT'S IT! HE'S A DEAD DEMON!" I yelled furiously, causing Cassandra and Rion to look at me like I'd gone crazy. Now enraged, I clasped my hand on the Ceiphied Crest on my right hand. "Small?! SMALL?! We'll see who's small when I Blast Bomb you to DUST!"

Cassandra suddenly gritted her teeth in dread. "Zane, don't!" she shouted as I chanted the amplification spell for my inner power. "You'll blow up the whole tavern with that much power!" She gripped my arm, but I refused to budge. Rion just looked at us with a mix of surprise and confusion.

"I don't care!" I screamed, my hands glowing with the flow of power. "I'M GONNA WIPE THAT ARROGANT SMIRK OF HIS FACE!!"

At that moment, I saw Grou flinch at my spell. A smirk this time came to my face to see him do so. Crossing my arms across my chest, I chanted the last of the words and felt the power rush to my hands.

"BLAST BOMB!!!" I roared, throwing my arms out.

The air whooshed and whined as my super-charged spell took form. The several balls of fiery light appeared and then shot out across the room at Grou. The last thing of him I saw was him holding his arm as if to halt the blast.

"RUN!" Was what Cassandra shouted behind me.

KA-BOOOOOOM!!!

***

"What were you thinking!?" Cassandra scolded at me. "The Blast Bomb in a place like that?! What, you didn't vent enough of your anger back when you blew up their headquarters?!"

Sitting on a tree stump, I listened to Cassandra dully with a fist against my chin like a posed statue. She'd been yelling at me ever since we got there. "Would you let it go," I asked her tiredly, "I said I was sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry!?" she scold at me. "Sorry doesn't change the fact that you almost burnt us to a crisp!"

I'd bet your wondering at this time, what happened. Well as you know, we were fighting Grou, I lost my temper, and tried to blow him away with the best spell I had. However, I knew the spell I cast hadn't killed him. After my experiences thus far with Mazoku, I knew he was still alive. So we took the most sensible, reasonable option...

... We fled.

To my luck, Rion had grabbed me and we got out of the building right in the throes of my spell's explosion. Had the spell done anything in our favor was it had distracted Grou, providing us with a successful escape. And here we were, on a wooded hilltop overlooking the town. And in the center of the town, we could see the cloud of smoke that had formed over where the tavern stood.

By stood, I meant reduced to a crater.

Oh well. Accidents happen.

"I can't believe this!" Cassandra ranted on, "You're a shorter fuse than your Blast Bomb spell!"

I flinched at the word short. "Don't call me small!" I shouted back at her.

"Enough, you two!" a strong voice interrupted us. Both of us turned to find Rion standing before us. His hand, still gripped at his sword hilt finally let go. "Despite the damage, we got away with our lives. That's all that matters," Rion pointed out as he looked about the forest hill we'd run to. "It appears we've lost him for now."

Finding a tree stump of his own, Rion gave a weary sigh and sat down. As he did, he rubbed his left arm as if he had injured it. "Are you okay?" I asked, concerned on how he got hurt.

Shaking his head, Rion looked at us kindly. "Don't worry. I'm fine," he assured.

Cassandra then gave me a crossed look. "I bet he injured himself from your little explosion," she grumbled in my direction.

Watch it, Cassandra. Rrrr...

"Zane," Rion asked, catching my attention as I turned back to him. "That spell you cast was the Blast Bomb, correct?"

Modestly, I nodded at him. "Well, yeah," I said softly.

Closing his eyes, Rion nodded as he thought. "Impressive," he complimented, "Even the most profession of sorcerers haven't been able to cast the Blast Bomb. You must be very talented."

A tiny smile cracked onto my lips. "Well, thank you," I said, "But I got a long way to go before I become a world-famous sorcerer."

Brushing off the compliment for a moment, I looked at Rion with serious determination. "But because I'm just that powerful, I've attracted one hell of a problem. You saw how powerful that Mazoku Grou was. This is my problem I wouldn't want to drag you into. I can totally understand if you left us."

Rion looked at me, and then closed his eyes again in reflection. "I see," he said calmly. "I see it clearly."

I gave a sigh of relief, drooping my shoulders a bit. "Thank you," I breathed, hearing him agree.

"It's clear to me now that you are in need of my company."

Surprise shook me, causing me to fall off my stump. "What?" I squealed. I'd expect him to decline fighting with us after what just happened. "Are you insane? Don't get involved! I'm telling you, if you get involved nothing good will come of it! You'll be putting yourself in danger!"

At that moment, Rion looked at me with his kind eyes. "Why," he asked knowingly, "Because you're the Knight of Ceiphied?"

I almost fell off my stump again, a gasp escaping my lips. So did Cassandra too as she heard Rion's question. Grou called me that. Knight of Ceiphied must have been in reference to the one who held Ceiphied's soul. But I never told Rion that I held Ceiphied's soul.

"H-H-How--?" I found myself troubled to get my words out. "How'd you know...?"

Smirking, Rion just turned his head to expose the side of his head. He pointed to his ears, still hidden underneath his hat. "I have a sharp sense of hearing," he explained simply.

I quickly shook the shivers out of my system to respond to him. "Even so," I pushed the matter aside as I stood up before him, "Grou is a terrible monster! Even I, who had Ceiphied's power to back me up, couldn't stop him! Aren't you scared?!" I shouted at him, almost hysterical.

"Aren't you?" was all he replied with, still calm.

"YEAH!"

Rion then raised his hand, silently telling me to sit down. "So why do you fight then?" he asked me knowingly again.

Taking a deep breath, I looked to Cassandra. She seemed quiet as the whole hillside became filled with suspense. I turned back to Rion and sat back down. "Because they want to hurt me," I replied, "I keep fighting them because I don't give up and so I can survive. Plain and simple."

Rion nodded, agreeing with my answer. "I have a reason for fighting the Mazoku too," he replied. Grasping his hands to his knees, he pushed himself up to his feet. He looked down at us with determination. He seemed to rub the spot on his arm that he'd felt pain with earlier. "I'm searching for someone... Someone who stole my life from me. And until I find him, I plan to kill every Mazoku who cross my path."

I felt hard to speak as I heard him. The look in his eyes seemed heavy, as if he'd suffered a horrible burden for many years. Cassandra beside me looked sympathetic towards Rion. She must have seen it too.

"In any case," Rion said, shaking off his seriousness reflective gaze and turned to me and Cassandra, "I want to help you. I can't let two kids undergo such terrors alone. I refuse to. So, I'll do whatever I can to aid you against them."

Cassandra then stood up, enthused with a gasp. "Mr. Rion," she said with delight. "We accept you help! Words can't express my gratitude!"

"WHAT!" I shouted at Cassandra, surprised. "Isn't this a bit abrupt?!"

Suddenly, Cassandra turned to me with a furious look in her eye. I think she was still mad at me for blowing up the tavern. "You want to make something out of it?" she growled at me. I swear I thought flames would appear behind her.

"Uh, no. Nothing, nothing at all," I said with a nervous chuckle and waved her a dismissive wave.

As the heat between Cassandra and I cooled off, Rion stood before us proudly, ready to go. "I guess this makes me your guardian then," he asked confidently, "So, where can I escort you to?"

I guess I can't get out of this, can I?

Giving in to the mysterious swordsman's offer, I stood up to him. Recalling from the map, I looked out towards the forested mountains to the north. "The best thing we can do is journey back home. Saillune is the safest place we can go now." I explained. If Cassandra and I reunited with our teachers back at the academy, we could actually get assistance. And as the city of White Magic, we'd have a home-field advantage if the Mazoku decided to attack us.

"Agreed!" Cassandra said cheerfully again. Jumping to her feet, she held a finger out at the view below. "And if we fight with hope and justice, no force will keep us from reaching home!"

Rion just chuckled at Cassandra's enthusiasm. "As you wish," he replied kindly. "To Saillune."

"Alright!" I shouted aloud. Gathering my energy for a positive trip, I stood up proudly. I faced the north with confidence, no longer going to be intimidated by Grou's plots. "Saillune, here we come!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A loud scream shook the hillside, causing the three of us to freeze.

Oh no...

Running up the hill, was a series of people from the town. Angry looks were plastered to their faces as they stopped along the path to face us. They held pitchforks and shovels in their hands. And leading them was the tavern owner that Grou had sent flying.

I stiffened at the sight of them. "Oh, hi there!" I said casually and waved at them, trying to act like I'd didn't do anything. I had a lot of practice. Oh, don't you start with me now!

"Don't play dumb!" the tavern-keeper scolded at me. Fury was twisted on his mustache face. "Just look," he then pointed to his crater of a tavern. "Look at what you've done to my tavern!"

I gave a nervous chuckle, casting a glance away from them all. "Uh, well, when you make an omelet, you got to break a few eggs, right?" I chuckled at them hopefully.

"Now we'll break you!" the man shouted, follow by the angry villagers behind him.

My first angry mob. This is a dear-diary moment.

Cassandra and Rion glanced nervously at me, and then at the mob before us. Not taking her eyes off them, Cassandra gave me a sharp elbow against me. "You started this," she hissed at me, "What should we do?"

"Okay, this is what we're gonna do," I told Cassandra. She nodded with a hum of acknowledgement. "You... stay here,"

"Yeah..." she replied.

I took a step back. "And I'm going to...RUN!" With my yell, I took off for the road behind me, leaving Cassandra behind.

No sooner had I ran, Cassandra turned around with a shout of offence. "Wha--! ZANE! Wait!" she yelled at me, and ran after me. Catching on, Rion quickly ran after us too, followed by the angry mob in bitter rage.

With Cassandra and Rion at my heels, we ran down the road with the angry mob trailing farther and farther behind us. "Being with you two isn't dull, is it?" Rion asked as we ran, keeping up with us.

"Unfortunately no!" I shouted as we ran further from the town.

And so, we headed off on a new quest. With my powers revealed, we discovered I hold the Soul of Ceiphied, the dragon god. And with Grou and god knows what other Mazoku after us, we now journey back home.

With a new ally and this new power I know how to unleash, Cassandra and I may just stand a chance against the Mazoku race. And so, we journey towards the bright, city of Saillune and the safety of our school.

That is, if we can make it there in once piece of course.