The Ice and the Forest

Meanwhile, outside the guild.....

"How are things on your end Sapphire?" Naomi asks her friend via telepathy.

"It's all going well. We've had little trouble, but nothing we can't handle, but to expect an infiltrator among us was the last thing I expected." Sapphire says as she takes out a guard.

"I know. I'll contact some of Eugene's friends now, to see how they are doing?" Naomi tells Sapphire.

"Ok." Sapphire reaffirms as the telepathic link is cut.

"Ryuunosuke, Shana, any trouble on your end?" Naomi asks silently as a group of Dark Mages past by her and her group.

The sound of an explosion rang out through the entire building. Once it subsided, Shana's voice contacted Naomi. "I think we're doing pretty well considering that we just destroyed half of the building and defeated over half of enemy forces. Wait, 'we' wouldn't be right since it was all Hayate's doing. Anyway, we still haven't found Yakunan or Exodus yet."

"Wow. You think you could've done that a bit more silently." Naomi says. "But still, that got the job done.

"Anyways, if you get eye on them you just..." Naomi says before stopping abruptly.

"Naomi-san, what's wrong?" Shana asked in worry hearing the abruptness.

"I hear you're looking for us. Will, as you can tell Naomi and her friends won't be answering for quite some time, better yet they never will unless you and your stupid low-rate mage friends do what we say. Cease your attack or they die, and I know you don't want to be held responsible for the death of Malek's mom. You have one hour to respond. Exodus has spoken." Exodus says as he hijacks the telepathic link before shutting it off.

"You're careless, leaving such an opening on you." A voice said coming out of nowhere behind Exodus before a pitch black blade stabbed through Exodus's heart. "That has been your undoing."

"Uuuugh. Impossible...." Exodus says as he collapses to the floor and dies.

"(Cough cough) Well, that's one less man to deal with." Naomi says as she coughs out blood. "I just hope we can take out the other two. Malek, Exodus is dead, guess you can thank your friends. Now we need to focus on Yakunan and Akuma."

"Very well mother. I'll let them know." Malek says as he and his mother cut the telepathic link.

Back at the guild.....

"Exodus is dead. One of your friends killed him Eugene. You should be proud." Malek says to Eugene sternly.

"I'm glad that we were able to get rid of one major enemy but I wonder whether the main source of the weapon is okay with it." Eugene said with a slight bitter tone. "In any case, the fact that he's dead and our objective here hasn't changed. Let's get moving."

"Lapis Azul, the last member of The Four will be harder to find. The fact that this is going a bit to easy seems to be to good to be true. Anyways, let's not keep our guard down. Tsukiko, Kiyoko, you two head east and see if you can find anything. Hatsumi, you remember the control room right?" Malek asks Hatsumi as soon as Kiyoko and Tsukiko head in their direction.

"Yes, it's two floors above." Hatsumi answers.

"Good, you and Rika go there and see what's really going on here. Me and Eugene will take care of Lapis Azul, and if there are others here.

"You got it." Rika says as she and Hatsumi run towards the nearest location of stairs.

"Let's get going then." Eugene said as everyone else left. "Let's finish this quickly and go home. It's been a while since we've had some fun."

"No! You go and take on Lapis Azul. I will take on Crystal. And do me a favor. Don't follow me this time. Also, try to make your fight last longer. Lapis Azul is no ordinary page. But when you do defeat her, I want you to meet up with everyone else. Am I clear Eugene?" Malek says seriously to Eugene. "One more thing. The Crystal you took in was a magic doppelganger created by Yakunan." After saying that Malek walks away silently and dissappears in darkness.

"Geez, he's not himself recently." Eugene said to himself noticing Malek's recent colder attitude than usual. "Anyway, I should get going." He said before running down the hall. After about 3 minutes of running, he saw what destruction his guildmates caused. Geez, they go overboard with that. He thought to himself with a sweat drop before finding himself in an open room several meters high and wide. At the center of the room, he saw a female there. "You must be Lapis Azul-san am I right?" He asked the person with a serious tone on his face.

"You are correct, it seems both of us have information on each other." The female replied. "It makes one wonder who has the advantage here."

"If you wanted any leverage on me, you're going to need my data from this morning." Eugene said with a confident grin before putting on his cloak's hood. "Activate." He said as he closed up his cloak. Upon doing so, the cloak began fusing with the armor underneath it, forming a suit of pitch black combat suit that covered his entire body and head. "Magic Combat Suit, 'Black Dragon' activated." The voice seemed to come from the suit itself. "What's wrong? You scared?" Eugene taunted the woman in front of him as he began moving his fingers for a bit.

"You think I'm scared of a little piece of metal. You need to working on your taunting skills boy."Lapis says to Eugene, having morphed her voice into his.

"Now, show me what you can do. Re-equip: The Renegade. I hope I am not disappointed." Lapis says as her body becomes covered in red armor as two swords appear, one on each of her hands. She then charges and clashes her swords with Eugene, creating a large shock wave by the impact.

All of a sudden, Eugene just disappeared and reappeared behind Lapis with his hand stuck out at her. "Ice Dragon's Roar!" With that, the magic circle for Ice Dragon Slayer Magic appeared in front of his outreached hand and from it came a powerful Ice Roar which blasted Lapis into the wall, partially freezing her in the process. "This isn't just a piece of metal, in fact, this suit isn't really metal at all. Anyway, this thing isn't just for protection you know."

"Impossible. How could you know such move. Only that damn Malek Kriya knows such magic." Lapis says shivering. "I can not lose here. This mission has to be fulfilled whether it costs me my life. I will not be arrested or killed by someone else." Lapis says to herself mentally.

"Answer my damn question! How did you use Malek's Slayer magic. It was nowhere near as powerful as his, but it left me freezing." Lapis says to Eugene as she manages to break free of the ice, it having froze her partially.

"Do I look that dumb to answer that?" Eugene replied flatly. "I've read enough comics and novels to know that when someone starts monologuing about what they can do or what their other stuff can do, they're the ones who end up defeated." Then all of a sudden, he disappeared and reappeared on standing straight on the wall opposite side of where Lapis was with a black bow in his hands and an arrow aimed at Lapis. "Try to figure it out yourself." He then shot multiple arrows at Lapis, all ready to explode on impact.

"Damn you and your pathetic guilds to hell. I will kill you and erase your name from this world. We will not fail nor fall. Even if you do defeat me, Malek will not live. And when he dies I will savor that moment." Lapis says to Eugene as she attempts to reach for the arrows.

"Oh my. Looks like Eugene is handling himself with her pretty well." Sapphire says as she observes their fight from a nearby indoor balcony. "As expected from Malek's friends.

Eugene began to say something inaudible to Lapis before aiming his bow again. "Gun Magic: Explode those in your path, The Detonator!" Using his bow and arrow instead of a gun, he fired a magic shot which exploded the arrows right in Lapis's face. Eugene then dropped down as he said something again before stretching his hand at Lapis again. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" Just like what happened with the Ice Dragon's Roar, a magic circle appeared in front of his hand before firing at Lapis.

"No, I will not die, no, no. I will not be defeated. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Lapis shouts as the flames hit her and throw her across the room. "Damn it damn it! Ice Spikes." Lapis shouts as she attempts to strike with several picks of ice that rise from the ground.

Eugene calmly used the Fire Dragon Slayer Magic to melt away the Ice picks with ease. "Why do you fight? In my case, I fight to protect my friends who I consider my family."

Family?Friends? Ha, don't make laugh brat. They are useless and a waste of time. That is why you trash bit mages and guilds always fall." Lapis shouts at Eugene. She is then struck by the same flames that melted her ice and sent flying towards a wall, nearly shattering her armor.

"No, no. The one world of magic we were promised. I want to see it." Lapis says as she struggles to stand.