Wonderland's Heart

Chapter 7

(Adventure Underground)

Karma would never get used to bouncing on the ground, but this was the fourth time it's happened this fight. Getting back to her feet she could see the little girl Ryder summoned and attack the man head-on only to be stopped by him slamming Elyse into her.

"Stop using me as a weapon yo- Waaaa" Elyse was thrown away once more as the little girl was kicked away from the man. All three girls together once again, Ryder quickly joined them. They only got a few good licks in on the guy but nothing really phased him.

"Girls rushing in like that isn't working," Ryder said.

"Thanks for the input captain obvious, got any helpful info!" Elyse yelled at him.

"Watch who you're yelling at, Bitch, ya pissing me off!" Wrath snapped back.

Elyse was about to open her mouth but Ryder was faster, "Enough both of you, we have bigger problems!"

"Ryder is right, we need to come up with a plan." Karma assisted their team leader. "Anyone ideas."

"We'll hit him harder!"

"Wraith we been over this, that is not a plan!"

"It's never a plan!" The girl snapped at her Master.

"I've got an idea," Elyse said as he stepped forward as the others watched her, she slowly took a deep breath, a very deep breath, she didn't stop breathing in. Ryder's eyes widen at the sight of Elyse sucking in so much that her cheeks puffed up greatly and her eyes started to glow a sickish purple. "Wind God's Bellow!"

A giant stream of purple air shoot from Elyse's mouth rushing towards the man, the kickback from the gust was strong enough to knock Ryder off his feet and force Karma to shield her eyes from the dust it kicked up. The man stood there, watching as the drew near until it slammed into him, the gust forced him off his feet, the winds tossing him and slamming him to the ground finishing off by throwing him straight up into the air. The three could only watch as the man drop from the great height, plummeting towards the ground rapidly, the impact came just as quick with a sickening smack.

"D-did you just kill him!?" Karma yelled at Elyse, as the rest of the group looked at the man.

"Well, he should've moved out of the way."

"Is that all you have to say for yourself!? Karma gripped the girl by her shirt. "You just killed a man!?

"Your point?" Elyse questioned, their yellow eyes glaring at each other. Karma couldn't understand how someone like this could even be apart of their guild, she cared this little for life. She didn't know what came over her but she snapped and her fist was already going across Elyse's face, only to be met with a fist coming across hers. Now free from the blue-haired girls grasp Elyse wiped the blood from her lip.

"Both of you stop!" They heard Ryder yell once more but this time was filled with real rage, sadly the girls didn't care, their eyes dead set on each other.

"Tsh, you run around with a sword and yet you're telling me you've never killed before?" Elyse asked, which Karma answered quickly with a yell.

"Of course not!" She glaring at the girl, her eyes unwavering as she gritted her teeth. "There is always another way, you didn't need to kill him."

"Karma please calm down." Ryder tried to keep the peace as he moved in-between the two.

"No, Ryder, I want to hear this." She moved the sole male to the side. "I want to hear her justify her defending a bandit!"

"I'm not defending him!" She defended herself, "The man should have seen proper justice, we are not Judge, Jury, and Executioner!"

"Well, it's not like it's a problem." They heard Wrath's voice. "Guy's coming at us!"

This quickly got the full teams attention, they all turned to see the man was already upon them, his fist clocking Ryder, sending the Spirit Mage flying, skipping across the ground like a rock over water.

"Ryder!" Wrath quickly ran to his aid, abandoning the other two to face to the man. Which wasn't going so well as he rushed at Elyse, who did her best to block the hits but his blows were so overwhelming it just shattered her guard and with a heavy hit to her gut, forcing her to drop to her knees, before he kicked her to the side.

Coughing and holding her gut, Elyse did her best to catch her breath as she saw the man walking back over to the mine's entrance, just blocking their way in. She noticed Karma move to her side, something about that pissed her off.

"Are you okay?" Karma asked her down team-mate.

"What do you care..." She spat at the ground, she looked down at the blood as she lifted herself to be kneeling. "You didn't even try to help."

"You're right, I'm sorry," Karma said, her head lowered. "I don't know what came over me, but my body just locked up."

"Whatever, if it wasn't for your star-" "Can we please stop!" Karma yelled cutting her off. "Please, we can talk about it when this is over but right now we need to work together."

"How dare you!" The voice didn't come from either girl, they both turned to see the little girl push past them, her eyes glowing red with rage, a tear of blood running down the side of her face. "How dare you hurt my Master!"

Her body trembling, changing. Her teeth have grown sharper, footsteps became heavier as she stepped closer and closer to the man, the sound of her bones cracking. Her pale skin slowly turning to a pure black as a dark mist grow around her slowly engulfing her. The girls had to take a small step back away from the underworld spirit as they watched the shadow of her grow from a small girl to a huge shadow monster.

"How dare you hurt my Rydee." The sound of her voice was distorted and hellish and suddenly a powerful howl cleared the mist away revealing a giant black hound which stood over 20 feet tall completely dwarfing them all. Its fur was pure black with red hellish markings glowing on its sides. Elyse and Karma couldn't really find themselves, Karma's legs were shaking looking at the mighty beast until she felt a hand touch her shoulder, she jumped and turned to see Ryder back on his feet. She saw the blood running down his face and arm.

"Ryder! You're hurt!" Karma went to his aid.

"I'll be fine," he told her with a small smile before his face turns back to toward the hound and his smile turned to a frown. "Wraaaath!"

The beast turned to the white-haired boy, blood dripping from its mouth as if it was drool, the red eyes meeting, staring, waiting for its orders.

"Sic'em." And with no hesitation, the hound leaped at the man.

(On a Train)

"Amanda, you should really move your hair from in front of your face," Liberty said to the shy redhead, who slowly lifted her head in confusion. "You have a very pretty face and should show it off more."

Amanda's cheeks started to heat up slowly trying to rival the color of her head which she quickly hid with her hands. "Waaa, N-n-noo way, I'm not p-pretty."

Britt could only shake her head as she looked at the girl next to her. "How will you ever get someone to fall for you if you act like that?"

"F-f-f-fall for me!? No no nononono..." She hid her whole face into her hands. "I'm not into anything like that."

"Then how will you have babies?" Libby asked.

"I'm only nineteen!" Amanda said back as she waved her hands around, she couldn't take much more of this. "I'm too young to be thinking about babies."

"My mom was nineteen when she had Cora… you're never too young." A huge smirk formed on the purple haired girls face as Amanda became redder than her hair. This caused to the two girls to giggle. "Okay, okay will stop."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't think so little of yourself." Liberty reached over and pulled the shy girl into a tight hug. "You are pretty, you should embrace it."

"… Thank you…"

"Now kiss."

"Britt why you gotta ruin everything!" Libby with her cheeks a red tint and Amanda hiding once more.

"Mother calls me Cheshire for a reason."

"Attention passengers, we will be arriving at Basswood City in a matter of moments." The voice over the loudspeaker said. "Thank you for choosing Wayside Railways and please, Enjoy the rest of your day."

"I won't lie, it's weird going out on missions again," Britt said, but Libby just smiled brightly.

"Don't worry about it, with us three together nothing can go wrong."

"T-that's a jinx."

(Mangrove Mines)

The man dodged the giant beast slamming her pews at him, he moved quickly to stop him from being crushed. With each miss Wrath only got more and more pissed, she swiped at the ground sending large rocks at him, He jumped up high dodging the rocks.

"Wind God's Gale!"

The man looked up to see Elyse above him and with a powerful clapped she sent dark powerful winds slammed against him hurling him to the ground, He smacked the ground with enough force to cause him to bounce only for Karma to slam down onto the man, forcing him back to the earth.

"Stay down!" He swung at her causing her to shatter and her glass shards to fly away from the man. He didn't even get a moment to recover as Wrath was already on him bringing her pews down slamming him deeper into the ground, she slammed him again and again. Wrath slowly backed away from the hole she made, panting heavily the Hell Hound slowly turned back into the little girl she once was, her outfit was changed to a black sundress and her hair was set free just flowing down her back.

"Alright, Wrath, you've been here a bit too long," Ryder said to the girl as he ruffled her hair.

"I say we should cook the fu-" Her mouth was quickly covered by the white-haired teen. "No cussing." And with a twist of the key, she was gone in a cloud of smoke.

"Okay…" Elyse started as they regrouped, and she looked at her other two team members. "I guess we go check the mines and see if there is more of them."

"Sounds like a good plan, but I think imma be much help," Ryder said as he was catching his breath.

"Are you okay?" Karma looked at him worriedly, she didn't know him much but this looked like the hardest he had to fight in his life.

"I'll be fine, Wrath turning to her true form takes a lot out of me." He reassured her.

"I think you should wait out here and let me and the Mutt handle the rest," Elyse added. "We don't need you overdoing it, we got it from here then we can head home."

"Yes, and then we will finish our talk with what you did," Karma said with a glare at Elyse.

"I didn't do anything, "Elyse snapped back. "Remember, he lived, so I did nothing wrong."

"That's not the problem! And you know it!"

"GIRLS!" This got both of them to look at Ryder who was sitting on the ground, he used a lot of magic this fight and it was wearing on his body. "Stop… Please. We will talk about it once we are home, but for now, Stop."

Karma eyes moved from Ryder back to Elyse, she could still feel her rage for the girl. But after a deep breath and a strong sigh, she did her best to let it go… for now. Once they returned to the Guild, Master Alice will be hearing about this. The man was strong and deadly but that doesn't mean we should kill him if we didn't have too. Her gazed turned towards hole the man was in and her eyes widen quickly.

"Back away from the hole!" Karma yelled causing the whole team to look and see a man looking into it, The man looked at them and slowly backed away. Karma shattered herself sending her shards towards the man and reforming before him. "Are you with these people?"

The couldn't really find his words as the short girl with the sword was yelling at him, the man's eyes darted back and forth, thinking of something until he heard a sound. A holy sound. Beep Beep, the Note in his pocket went off.

"Brago, your Mistress ordered you to return to her and to take me with you!"

A fist came from the ground grabbing Karma by the foot, she quickly shattered to get away from a small yelp. The man rose from beneath the ground where Karma stood, he was covered cuts and bruises, his left shoulder was clearly dislocated until he popped back into place. He scooped the man up and took off to the mines, the Wonder mages quickly took off after them.

(Deep in the mines)

"And sent," Dr. Amber said as she looked at the men moving the relic, it was a large oval shaped rock, it was orange with red markings all over it, and it glowed a strong bright red tint. The men sat the relic down on a cart gently, Amber walked over to the stone slowly reaching her hand out to touch it. She could feel it pulsating, radiating life and it put a small smile on her face. "Thank you, gentlemen, your work will not go unnoticed and you will be paid handsomely."

This got a good reaction from the bandits, all smiling, laughing, and cheering. The sole woman pulled out a checkbook and signed it before handing it off to the nearest bandit. The cheers only got louder with high fives being thrown around and even a few hugs.

"I'm happy for them." Dr. Amber said to herself. "Sadly they most likely won't be able to spend it."

Brago quickly came down the mine shaft stopping before Amber, he set Micky down who was close to hurling from the trip. She looked Brago up and down and only shake her head at the damage done to him and the time it would take to repair him.

"M-ma'am we need to hurry," Mick said as he got himself together. "Mages are right on our tail."

She was already making the call on her Note before Micky even spoke. She looked at him as she held the phone to her ear. "Ready for evacuation, I have the package, Will need transport and I will be bringing an extra."

With that she hung up the phone and suddenly a tear within the air appears, it grew wider until it was a large pool of spinning blue energy, The bandit's all stood awestruck by the gateway appearing but that changed once they saw armed men run out of the portal, six of them in fact, all dressed in completely identical armor. Their armor was all steel gray with blue trims, they had a chest plate, gloves, boots and a helmet which covered the top part of their face but left their mouths exposed. In their hands, they held assault rifles all trained and aim at everything that wasn't the doctor.

"Ma'am, what's the situation?" The voice came from the portal as a man stepped out, he was in the same armor as the others but the trim color was red instead of blue.

"The Relic is our top priority, but mages are on their way, so bring the recovery team to move it and have your men stand guard if they show." She order.

"And what of the bandits, Ma'am?"

"I do not care, I have paid them their money and they are no longer under our employment."

The lead officer turned to his men who still had their gun's trained on the bandits who had their hands held above their heads. They had the slight look of fear in their eyes as they had no idea what would happen to them. They looked at the head officer who turned his gaze to them, they couldn't see his eyes thanks to the helmet and he had no tell what he was thinking. The man pulled out a small device and spoke into it.

"Recovery Unit, the area's clear, move in to retrieve the package." The man turned to their men. "They've seen too much… Open Fire."

"No wai-" the sound of gunfire ripping through flesh cut the voice off, the gunfire soon came to an end and the sound of their bodies hitting the ground was all heard. Micky could only look at all the bandits were slain in front of him.

"There is one left." This got Mick's attention as one of the guards turned and aimed their rifle right to him.

"Stop, he is the plus one I spoke about." Dr. Amber said as and just like that the armored person went back to the others as Amber was giving orders to the recovery team, seven people dressed in full hazmat suits were slowly carting the rock away as the guards kept their guns aimed at the doorway waiting for the Mages to show, which didn't take long.

Elyse and Karma slide around the corner only to be met with guns aimed at them, Elyse didn't even blink before yelling. "Wind God's Barrier!" A vortex of dark wind in-cased the mages as Ryder joined them last minute. The bullets getting caught by the high winds, protecting the mages behind them.

"Move the package!" The leader ordered, The team in the hazmat suits started to move the relic through the blue portal.

"Karma can you stop them?" Ryder asked the shatter mage.

"I'll try!" She shattered herself and her pieces started to fly towards the recovery team as the guards kept Elyse and Ryder at bay. Karma sped past the guard and reformed with her blade drawn only to be met with a punch to the side of her face, quickly the girl shattered and moved back to safety.

"Package is through, Sir!" One guard called back, the lead nodded and order, "Fall back men!"

"We can't let them escape!" Karma yelled.

"I think we will have too!" Karma turned to Ryder who spoke up with a shocked expression. "Karma, we are talking heavy fire and Elyse can't drop her barrier without someone getting hurt!"

Ryder looked to see a woman with all the men, she said something to the man from before, more like giving him an order. He couldn't hear her over the sound of the wind, but he could make out a bit by reading her lips and from what he could tell, they needed to leave.

"Guys we need to leave!" He slightly ordered.

"Kind of hard, until more of those assholes leave!" Elyse said as she slowly moved closer towards the men. "God do they ever run out of ammo!"

"No, we need to go now!" He yelled, as the woman and the last guard left through the rift leaving only the man from before, who slammed his hand onto the guard before jumping through the rift, the whole area started to shake violently and Ryder quickly tackled the girls deeper into the room. Before they could even question they saw that the tunnel behind them caved in, and getting closer but stopped thanks to the support beams.

"No no no no no No!" Elyse got up and rushed the now blocked doorway and started to dig into the pile of rocks and rubble.

"Elyse stop!" Karma yelled for her before she made matters worse, but the girl wouldn't listen. She stood up and walked over to her fellow guild-mate, she reaches out and touches her shoulder. "Ely-Ugh!" Elyse elbowed her in the face causing Karma to stagger back and hold her face.

"B-bitch!" Karma looked at her with hatred in her eyes and was about to say something else before she felt Ryder place his hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him and he quickly checked her face. He was closer than he needed to be but Karma didn't care, it's the same close a doctor has to be.

"Nothing looks to be broken, that's good." He then turned to Elyse who was still digging with her bare hands and he could hear her hyperventilating.

"Come on… Come on, please… We can't be trapped…" The girl was saying as she kept digging to no avail, it seemed like the more she dug new dirt would take it place, meaning she would have to dig more. She has to get free. She has to.

Her body jumped when she felt arms wrapped around her, she quickly turned around and slammed her fist into whatever touched her, which was bad news for Ryder. But he didn't fall back and he pulled her into another hug, which Elyse did not like. Her eyes widen and she tried to push him away but he wouldn't budge.

"Get off me!" She yelled at him and pushed harder. "Let go!"

"It's okay." She froze, and she looked at him. "We are going to be okay."

"No, we're not..." She answered him but he only pulled her into a tighter hug and her head could only lower.

"We will, I will get us out of this." He whispered in her ear, as she slowly returned the hug. "I won't let us stay trapped down here."

He noticed her hyperventilating slowed and she stopped fighting, he slowly released her and took a step back from the two girls, which still didn't them too much space in the small collapsed room. He reached for the keys on his chain and held one key up, he turned to the girls.

"No matter what happens, do not get involved. Okay?" Elyse nodded but Karma gives him a questioning look. He took her silence as a yes and with a powerful sigh.

"Open the Gate of The Indolent, Sloth!" The sound of an organ filled the air and from the dark mist before a hand came out gripping Ryder his torso and holding him up.

"Ryder!" Both girls were about to act but he held his hand up stopping them.

What have I told you about summoning so close together, Mizu? The dark voice spoke, the girl's eyes followed the arm up to the owner, a huge red man with glowing yellow eyes and a long black bread on his face, only his top half was in view as the rest was with the dark mist. The man didn't look like a pushover, he was built big and power his arms were bigger than both girls entire body and that's not even talking about his chest.

"I'm sorry, Sloth. But it is an emergency!" He spoke to the man.

Do you not remember our contract!?

"I remember, but it also says I can trade with you whenever needed!"

The man pulled the boy closer to him so they could see eye to eye, the giant man's yellow eyes stared deep into Ryders, But the boy didn't back down, he couldn't at the moment. Karma wanted to step in but she didn't even know what she was dealing with and Ryder said he had it handled. But damn it, she hated feeling useless when she was able to help.

You are right, Mizu, Fine.

The man spoke to Ryder and set the boy back down before him.

State you wish, and I will tell you the Price.

Wish? Price? Karma had to think to herself as she watched everything unfold, she looked over and noticed Elyse appeared the same way, she was shaking and biting her lip but she didn't try to move. She seemed to calm slightly once Ryder was back on his own two feet.

"Sloth, Free us from this cave," Ryder stated.

Five

"… Deal."

Your Wish Will Be Grated, Ryder Mizu, Do Not Summon Me Again For The Next Year, Our Your Price Will Be A lot Worse.

The man clapped his hands and like clockwork, the mine shaft slowly started to fix itself, the dirt went back up to the ceiling, the pillars and support beams picked themselves back up and repaired themselves and within a matter of seconds, the mines completely fixed themselves. Suddenly the ground beneath them moved and they found themselves moving down the tunnels all of the ways out of the caves and back to the surface.

Karma couldn't help but look around as everything happened too quickly and she could only ask.

"What just happened!?" She started to turn to Ryder. "Ryder what wa.." But stopped herself when she saw the boy on his hands and knees throwing up blood. Both girls quickly went to his side once more today for about the fifth time.

"Shit, what happened!?" Elyse asked as he spat out a little more blood and lifted his head, the sight of his face made the girls worry even more. His left eye was bloodshot red, not just his iris but his whole eye and to make it worse a blood tear flowed down it, just as it did with Wrath.

"I'm fine."

"Bullshit!" Surprising it was Karma who yelled it. "Ryder, tell me what you did!"

"Saved us?" He answered with a small smile.

"This isn't time for games, Ryder." She said. "Explain what you did and what just happen. Wish? Price? What was the thing."

"You're not going to just forget about it will you?" He asked.

"No!" They both answered in each of his ears causing him to flinch, and he gives a small sigh. He couldn't really fight the girls and if he was going to be forced to hang out with them, they would learn sooner or later.

"Well… For starters, Sloth is a Djinn." He explained.

"Like the wish-granting myth?" Elyse asked and was answered with a nod by Ryder. "I didn't think they were real."

"They are, but no one should go out looking for them, they only want to be left alone. Sloth is slightly different though as he is one of the lords of the underworld. So he has to work." He looked at both of the girls as he could tell they were still on the wish-granting part.

"So… that explains how he freed us…" Karma said before facing Ryder once more. "But what about this, Price he said about?"

"Oh well, he needs to take some blood from as the price." He explains.

"DON'T LIE!" He flinched again and turned to Elyse. "I can tell you're lying."

"I'm not!" Elyse gripped him by the shirt forcing them to look eye to eye.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that." She said. "And if you do and I find you you're lying, I will… I'll… I'll beat you myself!"

The two stared at each other for a while but it felt like hours to Ryder, He could see the look in her eye that she was ready to hit him if she felt like he was lying but he guessed she was holding back because he was already hurt.

"Go on say it!" Still staring at each other Ryder opened his mouth but quickly closed it and his gaze dropped to the ground quickly. "Tell Us… what was the price, Ryder… Please."

"…" He kept his mouth shut.

"Elyse… Maybe we should-" "Years."

Karma turned to Ryder and her eyes widen slightly. "Pardon?" Karma spoke. "What do you mean by years?"

"The price for saving us was Five years of my life." He said flatly. "Sloth is willing to give me a free small wish once every year but if I summon him for something and if isn't time the price is my life, depending on how much he wants to take."

Karma didn't really know how to think about this but she knew it was wrong, he gives up time off his life for them and frankly, they didn't really have a way out of the mine that they knew of, but to just give up your own life like that… No, she couldn't accept that, she couldn't.

"How many time's have you've done this Ryder?" Karma asked the boy.

"This is the first time."

"Never again." They heard Elyse spoke, and they both looked at him.

"What?"

"You will never summon him again!" She pulled him closer. "You can't just give your own life like that!"

He could see small tears in her rage-filled eyes and had a good look at them as their foreheads were touching.

"Life is too important and it could be taken away from you with ease… so don't throw your own life away… Okay?" She looked at him but he slightly lowered his head.

"I can't promise that Elyse…" Her face formed a frown at his words. "But I don't plan on summoning him for anything that's not the last resort. I don't want to spend my life for stuff."

"… I guess that's the best we can get." She said as she lowered her head but she quickly picked it back up and looked at him. "So that just means I can't let you end up in a place where you have to summon him!"

"Excuse you?"

"You heard me, I'm going to make sure this never happens again!" She wore a detriment smile.

"A-and how do you plan on that?"

"You gave your life to save mine, that makes us friends now." She explained. "So you don't have a choice, Understood." She said with a balled up fist.

"Why does everyone I befriend want's to hit me!?"

"Good I take that as understanding," Elyse said with a smile, she looked to left. "Oh shit what's that!"

Karma turned around and before Ryder could turn his head Elyse pulled him into a tight hug that lasted for a short moment and released him before Karma could turn back around and whispered "Thank You." lightly.

Ryder nodded before saying, "Well now that's all done with, can we just go home."

The two girls nodded at the idea and they started walking off from the mines after a long hard day.

"Oh, Ryder..." He turned to Elyse to see what she had to say. "So like, remember how you needed to find a place to stay?"

"Yeah?"

"So I got this two bedroom apartment I got for a nice price… and well I could use a roommate to save money… and well it would be cheaper for you too than anywhere else in the city."

"Are you asking me to move in with you?" A smirk formed on his face. "We didn't even go on a date yet."

"D-d-don't make me hit! I don't like being teased!"

"Then this will be a weird friendship." His smirk turned into a smile, "But sure I wouldn't mind. I won't try to impose too much. I wonder what Cora will think?"

"Fuck her."

"I only met her a few days ago."

"Wha- Wait- That's not what I meant!" Her face turned red and the sound of the two laughing at her filled her with more rage and she lunged at him causing him to run. "I'll bloody your other eye!"

(Fin)

I did a thing… Yeah, that's all I got to say for myself. Oh and uh check out the DeviantArt under this name to see what some of the character's look like. So find EpicCubone and you'll find me.

Until next time, Laters!