Magic Mayhem

"Calista here is my wife"Kenji explained "And co-leader of the guild with myself"he explained as the woman smiled "How absolutely wonderful. I'm glad my son had such a good family, and such powerful wizards this guild has produced as well."Aria said smiling at the two of them "And it seems now, you need my help in protecting them?"

Quan-Li nodded "If I had not gone back and gotten Master Craven, you might all have died before the end of it all"he said shaking his head "Though, I miss being young, it was such an exciting time in our lives."

"yes. A dark guild has destroyed the magic council headquarters." Calista said and came to stand beside Kenji

"well life isn't over yet and theirs still some excitement and adventure to be had." Sonia gave him a smile as they started to catch up to Layla and Aki

"Oh well that is something new"Aria said surprised as Kenji nodded "Indeed, and I fear they will be targeting individual guilds next, Raven's Nest will not succumb to their evil ways. Not under my watch."Kenji said

Quan-Li nodded with a smile as they continued flying for what felt like hours before Quan-Li finally had to bring them down for a break while he regained his energy. They were deep in a jungle headed north as Akihiko looked around "This is cool, so much wilderness out here."

"They also have threatened to attack and kill any guilds or guild members that get in the way. We and the other guilds have formed alliances to help stop them, but we worry about our members." Calista explained while feeling the worry building up in her for Aki and Layla.

"Yeah that's why they call it that Bolt Brain." Layla said with a chuckle as she and chichi went into the trees. "This isn't to far off from where Kenji found me." She said as she leaned against a tree. "Azurtis and I would come out here to train too....."

"I understand"Aria said smiling "Well rest assure no harm will befall any guild member now that I have been awakened. I will invoke the oldest of magics to keep everyone as safe as I can with what limited power I have"she said

"Thank you"Kenji said bowing graciously to her "That is very reassuring to hear as this guild's current master. These are trying times for us all, there is no longer a magic council to govern us and protect."he said

"Yeah it still faintly smells like dragon in this area"Aki said sniffing the air "I was found way up in the mountains, so I've never seen anything like this before"he commented glaring at her as Quan-Li laughed as he began walking forward again "this way young ones"

"Yes. Thank you so much miss Aria." Calista said with a smile

"We made really good time Quanli. Thank you." Layla said as chichi settled on top of her bag and curled up to nap whil Laya basically carried her. "Who knows we might even be there already she joked

"Of course." Aria said smiling "I'm going back to rest now, if I am to be of assistance I'll have to release a lot of energy and it'll be quite the show"she said still smiling sweetly "But you'll see me around, as long as you have the mark of the raven tattoo and stay true to the ways of magic"

Kenji noddded "Of course. Rest easy."he said as he placed the eyepatch over his eye as she faded and the purple aura of the orb faded and it returned to solid black as he turned to Calista with a smile "Well, you just met the legendary Aria Raven. Believe my shock when my father showed me before he passed away."

"Ah yes one of the benefits of manipulating the air. While we were flying I drew a jetstream around us, your body didn't feel the difference but we were traveling around Mach 1 speeds just a moment ago. The fastest I have been able to safely handle is mach 3. My concentration cannot keep up after that point, it's literally splitting atoms of air at a subatomic level."Quan-Li said "I think if I could do that I'd be on the Wizard Saint caliber, but alas I cannot"he said with a laugh

"I'm sure you will one day Quan-Li. I know you can." Sonia said with a smile befor looking off toward Layla. "Don't wander to far. Master said that it's dangerous to go alone." She reminded. "I won't. Just want to see the old place agin." She said as she wandered further into the trees. "And she isn't alone. She has me! Chi." Chichi shouted back excitedly

"I'm just glad it am wasn't something like Zeref himself." She said. "Thank you for sharing this with me Kenji. In honored bumpy just as your co
Master or ally but also as your wife." She said and kissed him softly

"Yeah I'll be with her too"Akihiko said as they forged ahead as Nekka gave a thumbs up

"Oh to be a child again"Quan-Li laughed then smiled at Sonia "I am simply content with having magic at all."he said simply as they walked behind the kids giving them room to explore

Kenji kissed her back shaking his head "No, I may dabble in some dark stuff from time to time, but I tend to keep the likes of Zeref out of it thanks"he laughed as he lead her back upstairs as the stone wall sealed behind them once more

They wandered through the trees and sometimes Layla would take sniffs of the air to try and catch the now long gone scent of Dragon from the surrounding trees. The small group had stopped breifly at Azurtis's cave to see if there had been any sign od the dragon had recently returned to her perch. But no. Still empty. Save for a letter to the dragon that should she return to the cave letting her know that Layla was safe and happy and where she could be found carved into the cave wall.

Layla had quickly and understandably moved them all quickly away from the cave mouth and they followed the path of a few healed and or still healing and scared trees and earth till they found them selves as the outskirts of the ruined city. "Here it is. Fayluna Valley."

Buildings were either scorched, hollowed out by the fire and gust of wind away from toppling over or collapsed completely. Broken and burned carts, boxes and crates, sellers stalls and stand littered the street. "Creepy chi." Chichi said and flew into Laylas arms. "It's okay chichi. I know how you feel." She said as they walked around the town. "According to the book this market place used to once be the bustling heart of this town." She said as they wandered about.

"It's weird how everything is just gone...it's like a.....fire hurricane or something came down and burnt everything here and left"Akihiko said as he walked looking around "What exactly did happen to this place? Does the book say?"Aki asked Layla curiously as he began looking through some of the rubble "I've never seen this kind of destruction before...not by anything other than a dragon or some large monster, or magical explosion."

"No. The bo doesn't say. According to the person I got it from said that it must have never been completed or the scribe was to busy trying to escape." Layla said as she pulled out the book from her bag and held it open with her free hand while Chichi was hugged with the other one. "It just abruptly stops in the middle of a sentence and has ink spilled onto a page. Some scorching but nothing else." She said and continued to scan and sniff the area.

"Not to be morbid or anything, but if this was a packed village and no one survived.....where are the bodies? From what I can see the fire didn't destroy everything here so it couldn't have completely destroyed a body." Sonia said as she looked around.

"An excellent point Sonia"Quan-Li said frowning as he looked around as well "And even if decay and necrofication began to take place, we should at least see bones and other kinds of flesh and organ scattered.....I fear something much darker may have happened to this village than a simple fire, or bandits."he said

"Now this is getting really interesting!"Akihiko said excitedly "We have a mystery on our hands, the case of the missing village....let's keep digging around for more clues to see what we can find before we call Kenji"

"Let's split up. Call for each other if we find anything." Layla said as she turned to the others. "I'll head further into the Village center. Maybe see if there is anything that can tell us more. Sonia, can you take to the edge of the city?"

"Yes but I will need some help." She said and took a step away from the others. "Oh plane of the spirits of the earth, I call to thee!" She said and held out her staff in front of her and raised up into the air and poised to strike. A magic circle, green in color appeard at her feet and the loose dust and dirt and cobble stone street swirls in a perfect circular opening under the magic circle. "Come forth my faithful steed and hound! Feiro and Kaiga!" As the name left her lips she slammed the staff into the ground and the swirling opening gave way to a wolf three times the size of its Earthland counterpart. It was grey in color with sharp grew eyes and green and blu markings in its fur that swirl around its eyes toward its ears, paws and up its legs and down its sides and finishing into a solid section at the tips of three tails.
A second and also larger counter part of a horse came clawing its way to the surface was a giant of a horse with eight legs and the color of verging shades of green. It's mane look to be almost of hair and plant life and it's eye were a glowing blue. Once both massive creatures were emerged and standing outside of the circle, it closed, leaving no trace that it had ever opened.

"You summoned us mistress?" Said the horse in a ladies voice as he knelt her head to Sonia and deep gravely male voice growled irritably. "Better be good too witch." Came from the maw of the wolf.

"Woah..."Akihiko said blinking as he looked at the two of her creatures "I've never seen an 8 legged horse before..."he said shaking his head

"I will patrol from the skies"Quan-Li said as he slowly floated above the ground rising higher and higher as he began flying over the area looking for anything out of the usual around the village "Hmm....It's also very perculiar that this village has been removed from most modern maps...even maps still show the ruins of forgotten civilizations..so why not here.."

"Yes. Feiro and Kaida are from a plane of earth embodied spirits." She said before telling getup and Kaida what they were doing. "Layla, you shouldn't go alone. Akihiko should go with you just incase." She said before riding off with Kaida to the east while the large wolf Feiro ran off to the west side of the city. Layla turned to Akihiko and nodded to him before heading down to the center of town.
The buildings there told the same story of fire, death and chaos. "I wish I could have seen this place before....this book makes it sounds like it was such a nice place."

"Yeah it sounds like it"Akihiko said as they walked around as he turned over stones and looked into burned houses looking for any sort of clue "I still wanna know what kind of magic did something like this....hey you think Kenji would know? He knows a lot about Lost magics. Should we use the magic mirror and call him?"Akihiko suggested as he reached into his pocket pulling out a small mirror on a chain looking similar to a pokcetwatch as he held it up in front of him and flicked the glass as it spun around quickly

"Wouldn't hurt." She said and turned back to him. "But only if he's not busy. He has enough to worry about with that dark guild." Layla said and stopped to look over a building that had the most fire damage in where they stood. While Akihiko made contact with Kenji, Layla started to go inside, chichi stayed out side with Kenji and Nekka not noticing she had gone into the building. There wasn't much that hadn't been touched by the fire and looked untouched by the elements or another human in years. She carefully made her way through what was once a store front to the back when she noticed on the old counter what looked like a hand print formed in the dust and soot

As the mirror stopped spinning Kenji's face appeared in the glass and was projected full above it in a chibi fashon "Yo"Kenji said putting his hand up with a smile "What's up kiddo?"

"We have some questions."Akihiko said "Sonia and Quan-Li are out scouting right now. We got to where the village is, but it's not on any map, we flew in from the skies and everything looks like it's been burned down...but we haven't seen any bones or bodies or stuff yet so we are really confused as to what happened here."

"Well from the sounds of it a couple of things maybe"Kenji said tapping his thumb "Either all the people went away for some reason not related to the fire and something came later on and burned everything, or the people did something that caused them to burn, or something sacrificed the people to cause the fire, in which case those two instances would be signs of a ritual magic or dark magic respectively."he explained "Whichever one it is would be hard for me to tell without being there, but I hope that helped. If you find any more clues let me know and I'll help you out where I can."he said before his image vanished and Aki grinned flipping the mirror before stuffing it back into his pocket "He's the coolest Master ever"he said to Nekka and Chi-Chi grinning before blinking "Hey..where's Layla?"he asked looking around confused

'Witch.' called Feiro. A benefit of Sonia's magic was a telepathic link that she had gained from one of she spirit companions. It helped her to link with any and all of them once summoned. "Yes Feiro? Have you found something?"
'yes. I found war looks to be a home or nest of something. Smells human enough.'
"A human? Here....follow the sent and I will find you." Sonia said and turns Kaida around to go and find the others and the wolf.

Layla looked at the fresh hand print on the counter before looking around around agin, closely to find any other marks that had been made recently that were not her own. She soon found a path of shuffled foot prints and other hand smudges in the back of the old store. A bakery or sorts once upon a time. Sje was about to round the corner when suddenly a heavy pot was thrown at her and a figure pushed passed her and our the back door. Layla dodged the pan where it crashed into the remain or other pots and pans and the shelf that had housed them, making a list us racket. "Hey wait!" Layla called after the figure and ran after them without thinking.

Akihiko blinked as his head quickly turned hearing the noise "Layla!?"he called after her as he quickly ran across the street towards the bakery running inside just as all the pots and pans came crashing down all around kicking up tons of thick black debris and soot as he coughed waving his arms in front of him trying to breath as he backed out of the shop "Layla!"he called again still coughing as he attempted to run around to the back side of the house and down the alley after her

"Wait!" Layla called as she ran after the figure. There was no way to tell who or even what it was she chased for this person wore dark dirty rags that hooded and covered them. What scent she caught from the figure was a mixture of filth and the old dust and soot that had adults her senses since they walked into the old and abandoned city. "Stop! I won't hurt you!" She called and that was why she had yet to use her magic on them as they must have been scared. Had they had magic or felt otherwise do threatened, Layla figured they would have done worse then toss an old pot.

Sonia had made it to her wolf spirit companion where he waited just outside what looked to be a house in a state of disrepair like all the others, but better off and looked still lived through the open door where she now stood. From the outside the house would have camouflaged its occupant from anyone who would come to the city to look around. At the moment, said occupant was out.
"Can you trace the scent?" She asked.
"Barely. Theirs place reeks of ash."
"Follow it if you can. Kaida and I will follow you." The wolf nodded and ran off following the scent wth his fellow spirit behind him. Sonia lifted her staff into the or and sent off colorful sparks into the air to signal to Ouan-Li of her discovery without knowing their younger companions own chase

The air picked up swiftly around Sonia for a moment before Quan-Li appeared out of a puff of clouds landing gracefully beside her "Miss Sonia, what did you find out?"he asked "It seems someone still lives here then?"

Akihiko sighed as he looked around as he walked aimlessly around the city "I can't find where they went guys"he said sighing "And the buildings cover up the streets from the skies"he said as he paused putting his nose up into the air "something smells funny..like...something's off"he said as he began following of nose into a different direction

Chichi was panicked and called for her friend and partner. "Layla! Where are you? Layla!" She stopped and turned to Akihiko. "M..maybe should split up? Or take to flying?" Chichi asked, needing to do something to find her friend.

Layla continued after the figure who quickly took a sharp turn and ran through a large archway with a gate that had been knocked off its hinges into a good sized courtyard with mowing cobblestones much like the rod that had lead to it. The walls with a few bricks to full sections either missing or completely knocked over. Layla panted after the figure and getting tired. But se didn't want to give up or lose this person who could have possible answered into her past, she swung her hand and the fallen stone bricks of the fallen wall moved and blocked the path into what looked like a castle. Their escape blocked, the figure stopped at the wall and turned to Layla who stopped and tried to catch her breath. "There.....now.....you can't run away." She sighed and straightened up. "Look......I'm not going to hurt you...."


"Yes. Feiro found it and is following the scent now. Kaida and I were going to ride after him and I thought you should know. Maybe go find Layla and Aki while I try to find this person. Though how or why this person is here is very odd."

"Come on Chi, it's too dangerous to go off alone, I'm sure Layla probably caught the guy and is questioning him right now and if my nose is right, then it might lead me straight to them"Aki said as Nekka nodded "Yeah he's right Chi-Chi let's just keep going for now"she said

Quan-Li nodded his agreement "THat sounds like a good plan, be careful and if you get into trouble you know what to do"he said before he vanished again in another puff appearing in the skies once more at building heights as he zipped down the streets looking for the children