*sigh* finally finished... Previous chapter is not that interesting, huh? It's like I forced the situation to do so. I hope you don't lose interest for this story because of that. And about this chapter... it's really difficult to be done. As the title I give, this chapter is mostly chats and that's why it's really difficult. I tried not to make Jade OOC... I'm sorry in advance if you find OOC of Jade.

Enough about that! Just want to share my thoughts XD Enjoy the reading now

When Something Isn't as You Expected

~ Chat Between Fools ~

"Colonel Jade!" Gailardia said happily.

"Gailardia!" Jade said as he saw him then he changed his gaze to the three people standing across him. "They are…"

"Hey, who's that person over there? It seems that count knows him," asked Enist.

"If I don't mishear what that count said, he is Jade," said Qion.

"What?! Do you mean 'that' Jade?"

"Maybe.." said Qion.

"Why don't we ask him directly?" said Khuraku.

Khuraku walked forward and asked, "Well… You're called Jade, huh?"

Jade was standing in front of Gailardia and said back, "You should introduce your name first before asking."

"Oh, you're right. My apologies; I'm Khuraku, a scientist. These are my partners, Enist and Qion, also scientists. And you are?"

"I'm Colonel Jade Curtiss of Third Division Malkuth Imperial Forces," said Jade.

"Jade Curtiss?! That means…!" Qion was surprised.

"Yes… The one who let us do our favor, Jade the Necromancer!" Khuraku said aloud.

"Necro.. mancer..?" Gailardia whispered as he hugged Luke. His eyes are locked to Jade.

"Ah… it's been years since I last hear that. It seems that call is still famous after all," Jade said naturally.

"I can't say it's famous though... That name just spreads on its own among people," said Qion.

"With your way to collect corpses from war and every place, there's nothing odd that that name spreads casually. 'If your friend or family died, just give it to the Necromancer of Malkuth' they said. I don't know what that means at the time but now I know," said Khuraku.

"Enough about me, are you targeting these kids?" Jade said.

"'Targeting' is not the right word, Colonel. I just to take back what is mine," said Khuraku.

"Yours? Do you think I will believe that?"

"Hmph… It's up to you to believe or not. The truth is that Luke is mine, because I made him," said Khuraku.

Jade didn't reply that. Jade thought for the next movement. If they had a fight there, it would be hard for them to run. The Oracle Knights could come there anytime. There's only one way left there. "Gailardia, please took Luke and used the path there. Maybe there's an escape," Jade whispered to Gailardia. Gailardia did as said. He ran to the path while holding Luke's hand.

Qion noticed Gailardia's movement and wanted to stop them, "Thunder Blade!"

Gailardia heard that and as he ran, he shouted, "What! A wind fonon?!" Gailardia kept running as the thunder blade was like chasing him. Fortunately, the magic hit the ground behind Gailardia. Gailardia and Luke got an impact from that but that didn't stop them. They continued to run.

"Damn! Khuraku, chase them!" Qion said.

"Right! Enist come with me!"

Khuraku ran earlier than Enist, therefore there was some distance between them. Jade used that chance to separate to two with a magic he had casted, Ground Dasher. The magic appeared right before Enist and it made Enist fell backward. Jade immediately casted another magic to stop Khuraku because Khuraku's step was held back by Enist's fall. Seeing Jade casted the magic, Qion also casted his magic which was faster than Jade's, "Not so fast! Flame Burst!"

Jade cancelled his casting. He back stepped to avoid the fire. "So you can control two fonons in the same time?" said Jade, smiling. "Yeah. That's my specialty. Do not think to interfere with our plan, Necromancer!"

On the other side, Enist and Khuraku were having a little argument. "Hurry! Or he'll prevent us from going again. We can't lose Luke now. He's almost finished," Khuraku said, pulling his friend's hand. "B-But, what about Qion? He'll lose. His opponent is Jade the Necromancer!" Enist said. "Don't worry. Qion can do something about that."

But after Khuraku said that, an explosion was heard. They turned their heads to see what happened and found that Qion was thrown to the wall; hitting it so hard he was bleeding.

"Qion!" the two shouted.

Then from the smoke of the explosion was periodically faded. Jade was standing with his hand was lifted to the front. It's as if he pushed Qion with his magic.

Jade brought his hand down and said, "Your control of two fonons at the same time is amazing, I should say. It's not something someone can do so casually. However…" He paused and walked forward, "To beat me… it's still too early!" After he said that, he casted another magic, "O darkened storm cloud, loose thy blade and run mine enemies through! Thunder Blade!" He unleashed it right to Qion who had difficulty in moving his body because of the former damage.

When the magic was charging to Qion, Enist released his hand from Khuraku's grab forcely and ran to Qion's place. "Oi, Enist!" Enist knelt in front of Qion and lifted his hand as if he wanted to stop the magic.

The Thunder Blade finally hit something and made another explosion. Jade covered his eyes from the smoke, so did Khuraku. "Enist! Qion!" Khuraku shouted. 'There's no way they're alive… or at least they faint now,' Jade thought. The smoke slowly disappeared and revealed that Enist was still so healthy without any injury. Jade and Khuraku were both shocked. "What on earth-?!" Jade said aloud.

"Sorry, sir. Your magic doesn't hit anything," Enist said.

Enist turned his body and casted a spell for Qion which ended with the name of the spell itself, "Cure!"

For that instance, Qion's wounds are all recovered. Seeing that, Jade was surprised, "So.. that's why…"

"The Seventh Fonon… you can use it…" said Jade.

"What? The Seventh Fonon? I don't know you can use that?!" Khuraku said.

"Of course you don't. I have only learnt it for one year," said Enist. He helped Qion to stand up and told Khuraku to go after Luke. And he added that he had to support Qion with his healing power. "Now, go!"

Khuraku turned around and began to run again. Jade wanted to stop him but Qion casted an Energy Blast to stop him. "Don't disturb him… or you'll die."

.:+:.

Meanwhile, Luke and Gailardia had arrived in a large room painted with white. There's nothing there except a big standing clock at the wall. And there's still something that surprised Gailardia and Luke, that there were Fon Master Ion and his guardian, Arietta, in the center of the room.

"Welcome, Count Gardios and Luke, to the Grandfather's Saint Room," said Ion.

"Grandfather's Saint…?" Gailardia said softly.

"That's what we call this room. You see, there's a grandfather's clock and all… Well after all, it's an old forgotten room…"

"Why are you here, Fon Master…?" Gailardia asked as being cautious.

"Oh… don't be in hurry. I just want to be here, that's all, especially that you are here too," Ion smiled.

"If you want Luke, I won't give him to you! I won't let you take him!" Gailardia exclaimed.

"My… so scary… I don't have to have Luke on my side, you know… but I still have to do something to accomplish my goal," Ion said.

"Your goal? What is that?" Gailardia asked.

"Maybe… if you let me have some fun, I'll tell you, Count Gardios. Now, Arietta let's have some fun," Ion ordered.

"Yes," Arietta whistled so loud that it filled the room. In a minute, the glassed windows were all broken as monsters were coming. Not just flying monsters but also land monsters. They were coming at once. Ion moved backward to the grandfather's clock. Arietta rode her Liger and was ready for battle.

If you saw how many the monsters were, they would say 'there's no way you will win'. Gailardia was frightened. He looked right, left and up. Wherever he looked at, the room is filled with monsters he knew and not. Luke was clinging tightly to Gailardia. He was shaking.

For the beginning, one flying monster seemed impatient that it charged to Gailardia right away. Gailardia didn't notice that and kept trembling as he saw those monsters. Luke was different though. He was shaking but also looked around and he knew that a monster was charging at him. "Gai! Up there!" When Gailardia turned his head to see it, the monster was already close. It readied its talons to tear Gailardia's body. Gailardia couldn't do anything in that distance. It was too late to draw his sword and even if he rolled away, Luke might be hit instead. He couldn't move and he couldn't let a voice out too.

He moved Luke to be behind him. He was scared of course. And just before he closed his eyes to accept the truth, the monster was sliced to pieces. Gailardia's mouth was opened as he didn't believe what happened. Before he could ask anything, his head was hit; letting a groan come out his mouth.

"Why are you so scared of these things, Gailardia?!"

Gailardia looked behind him and stared at the six Aggregate Sentiences.

"You don't have to be afraid. We are here!"

"That's right. If you fight for Luke's sake, then we fight beside you."

"Don't tell me you forget about us. That's hurt, kid."

"D- Don't worry, I'll help too."

"Just draw your sword and fight like a man. No need to be afraid."

One by one, Sylph, Efreet, Undine, Shadow, Gnome and Rem said those things. When Gailardia heard each sentence, he felt that his burdens were lifted one by one. He looked at Rem who told him to draw his sword. Rem just smiled and nodded. Gailardia looked at his sword which was still sheathed on his waist. He sighed then smiled. "Thank you... All of you..."

Now Gailardia's eyes changed. They were filled with courage and he was not afraid anymore. Gailardia drew his sword, the Jewel of Gardios. As he held it, it shone blue just like his the color of his eyes. "Luke, stay back for now," he told Luke. Luke went backward, to the entrance of the room. "Now, please lend me your power, Aggregate Sentience!" Gailardia said.

As the cue to fight had been said, Arietta ordered her monsters with a loud high pitched voice, "Go!"

The monsters were charging at Gailardia. In the beginning, small monsters could be beaten easily. Just one or two slashes, the monsters would die. For flying monsters, Gailardia counted on the Aggregate Sentience. Most of their power was to unleash magic. It made Gailardia had a hard time to defeat close opponents as there was no help. However, with his agility, he could handle it.

.:+:.

Back to where Jade was, now the place was destroyed even more. There were cracks everywhere, both the walls and the floors. "O flames of hell, cremate mine enemies in a cage of fire! Infernal Prison!" Jade casted and magic circle of red appeared below Qion. The fire caught Qion's coat and burnt it a just a bit because he stepped back. The magic left a complete Fire FoF which was close to Qion. Qion stepped forward again and used the FoF, "Feel the wrath of hell! Flame Tornado!"

Qion countered before Jade could move from casting his magic. It's too late for Jade to move right now. The wind had circulated around him and the fire which followed it produced the flame tornado. Though Jade was exactly in in the tornado, Qion saw water splashing. When the magic finished, Jade's uniform was just burnt a bit and… he was a little soaked. Qion and Enist were a bit startled to see that.

"You're so smart, Necromancer. To think that you would use your own magic to yourself… that's unusual," said Qion.

"It's better than got burnt," Jade replied.

"You're right about that. As expected from a prodigy… Might as well give thanks for you, Necromancer," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… thanks for your fomicry that we are able to achieve what we want."

"Then… Luke really is…"

"Correct," Qion interrupted, "Luke is a replica."

When Jade heard that, he was furious. He wanted to kill Qion right away with his magic. He could if he wanted though. But he wouldn't go anywhere if he did that. Therefore he decided to stay calm and ask him for information.

"Fomicry… it's has been years since I last heard it. I forbade it long ago… how could you know it?" Jade asked.

"Don't ask me… It was Khuraku who found it. I just help him with his dream."

"How unfortunate… I must have you under arrest for this case."

"Oh… you want to arrest me? How about you who invented it?"

"My apologies; but I'm not interested in someone like you. I forbade so no one will use it again, even me. And now you used it without my permission, that's enough to arrest you," Jade said.

"Arrest me… if you can! Flame Burst!"

Jade avoided it easily. Then he casted Splash to Qion. Qion also avoided it but before he could stand, another Splash came and he had to back-flipped several times. After some Splash, a complete Water FoF appeared near Qion. He smiled and stepped to the FoF with a thought he could use it like before. Just when he stepped on the FoF, he realized that Jade was not in his place. "Too bad." Qion heard a voice. Jade was already in the FoF too and they were close to each other. "When did you?!"

"Mighty Deluge!"

Walls of water came out. Qion couldn't see clearly because the water made him so. Jade was prepared to cast another low level magic to knock him unconscious. But Enist prevented that by his magic again. Jade jumped backward while Enist casted first aid on Qion… "There's no end to this…" Jade said.

"There is… when you finally out of your energy to cast any magic, Necromancer…" said Qion as he stood up. "I don't understand you…"

"Huh?" Jade was confused.

"I don't understand… why you left your fomicry while you can rule the world with it… Just make humans out of it and the world will be yours."

"I don't have any idea about what you're talking about. I didn't invent it for that reason."

"Hmph… the Necromancer who collected corpses has changed like this… You're being soft hearted."

"I don't care what your opinion about me. I've realized I was wrong back then. I don't want anyone repeat the same mistake again."

"This is getting nowhere… What we are doing now is just—"

.:+:.

Ion was staring at the fight calmly. Arietta was still on her Liger's back but she made no move. If some monsters were annihilated, she summoned more monsters. The more they killed, the more the monsters.

"Arise mine violent waters to rout mine enemies! Blessed Drops!" Undine casted.

It made some monsters dead again but just the land ones. The flying monsters were hard to kill. Undine left water FoF by her magic and called Shadow to use it, "Go water, take 'em out! Maelstorm!"

With that, the flying monsters in range were killed. Seeing that, Arietta raised her hand and more monsters barged in. Gailardia slashed low leveled monsters since he was not as strong as he wanted. He counted on the Aggregate Sentience to beat the strong ones. Also with FoFs left by their strong magic, Gailardia could perform more. Now he was going to slash some monster in a row. They were exactly in the large Fire FoF. Gailardia ran that way and when he stepped on the FoF, "Flame arise! Infernal Torrent!"

The monsters are burnt. Then two birds flew around him and they attacked him from two sides. When the birds were really close, Gailardia took risk to jump between them. Unfortunately, the birds didn't crash. They stopped right below Gailardia and waited for Gailardia to go down. "U-Oh…" Gailardia couldn't go anywhere in that state. If he had wings, it would be different. "Gailardia, use my power!" a voice shouted. It was Gnome. Gnome gave her power to Gailardia's sword. An earth fonon. When he was going down, he stepped on a bird to jump again and used the fonon, "Feel the dragon's fangs, you monsters! Wyrm Wrath!" Gailardia brought his sword to the front as to cut something. When he landed, the fonons was working and killed the birds along with some monsters surround him.

"Thanks for that, Gnome," he said. Then he continued the battle.

On another side, Efreet and Sylph were fighting side by side. "Hey, Sylph, use your Thunder Blade there!" Efreet told Sylph in a loud voice. "What!? Don't order me around!" was the reply. "Come on, you know what to do!" said Efreet.

"Darkened storm cloud, loose thy blade!"

"Flame of hell, burnt mine enemies to bits!"

"Thunder Blade!"

"Infernal Prison!"

The two casted their magic at the same time and unleashed them also at the same time, but in different direction. After finished casting that, each of them prepared another magic. While they were chanting the spell, the previous magic had done damage to many monsters and left both Wind and Fire FoFs. So when each of them finished their chanting, they also used each other fonons.

"Bring them to ashes! Explosion!"

"O flame of hell, dance now! Flare Tornado!"

Again, they cooperated to annihilate the monsters. "Yeah! That's expected from me!" said Sylph. "You owe me," said Efreet. "Well, you owe me too," Sylph replied. "I guess I'll pay for it one day."

"Carve mine holy seal! Éclair de Larmes!" Rem casted.

Each of the Aggregate Sentience gave their all to kill the monsters. Meanwhile, Luke was just standing at the back. He was scared. Blood was everywhere… the blood tainted the white room. Gailardia gazed that a monster was running to Luke. "Oh no." Gailardia immediately ran to Luke and slashed the monster to its death. "Don't worry, Luke. Just stay there," Gailardia told Luke. Gailardia turned his body and found another monster was close to him. He brought his sword to his front and was ready to parry it but the monster tricked him. It didn't targeted Gailardia, it targeted Luke. "No way! Luke, run!"

However, Luke was too scared to move. And with that distance, Gailardia couldn't do anything. "Dammit! NO!"

The only Aggregate Sentience who heard Gailardia's scream was Efreet. He turned and saw Luke was in danger. Unconsciously, he got very angry and his power was overwhelming. "Don't you dare… touch him!" Efreet shouted so loud it made the battle stopped.

Firstly, Efreet sent a rope of fire to the monster which was targeting Luke and burnt it to ash in a blink of an eye. The fire was very hot. Even Luke felt that. As that happened, no one moved. They were really shocked. Then he suddenly said to Gailardia, "Don't move until I tell you to." Efreet flew up and shouted angrily, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" He crossed his arms and opened it as wide as possible. When he did that, fire came down to the floor and it spread through the room. For Gailardia, the fire dodged him and made a space just for Gailardia. As the fire filled the room, the monsters on the floor were burnt just like the previous one. Then after the land ones were dead, the fire crawled up to the air and started to catch the flying monsters. Screeches were heard. The monsters cried in fear and pain. One by one, they were burnt to ashes.

The fire also went to Ion and Arietta's place. As for them, Arietta used her barrier to herself and Ion. Meanwhile, her Liger used its tail to extinguish nearby fire. "So this is what the score meant… I don't expect 'the enemies' to be me and these things," said Ion. "Master Ion, are you alright?" Arietta asked him. "I'm alright. Don't worry."

On the other hand, Efreet slowly went down. He panted and he also apologized for being so reckless. "Sorry. Somehow I just get angry… and luckily I can still control my power, but…" he said.

"No, you did the right thing, Efreet. If you didn't… we won't know what will happen to Luke," said Rem.

"You moron! What if Gailardia get burnt too?" said Sylph. "But, that's a good decision."

"Now… we still have two of them there," said Shadow.

Gailardia and the six Sentiences gazed at Ion and Arietta. With a smile on his face, Ion walked forward and stood still. Then Gailardia also walked forward until few meters away from Ion.

"That was quite a performance… Count Gardios…" Ion said, smiling.

"I don't care… just tell me, what your goal is," Gailardia demanded.

"Be patient… I'll tell you now."

Ion began to walk again, approaching Gailardia. Gailardia was ready for anything Ion would do to him in case Ion was just acting. Ion and Gailardia was about the same height here. Ion leaned on Gailardia's body and he whispered to Gailardia's ear.

"- -"

After saying something, Ion brought his body back and just smiling. Gailardia didn't give an immediate respond. Gailardia was quiet like a statue. "How's that? I've tell you my goal…"

"… … …. Y… You… You fool! Are you crazy?!" Gailardia suddenly shouted.

"Nope… Nothing of the sort. It's just a stupid idea that can come from a fool…" Ion said.

"How can you say that?!"

"Just saying… and also… it works for you too, Count."

"Heh, so you are saying that…"

"Yes, of course. This is just—"

Chats Between Fools

"Fools, huh? Not a bad name. I deserve that," said Jade.

"A prodigy who was called a fool … who would expect that?" Qion replied

.:+:.

"Well… maybe I can't deny that…" said Gailardia.

"Oh…."

"But, I won't let your crazy goal be granted?!" Gailardia said.

"Hm? How brave… If you say so, then I have no choice…" Ion said as he walked backward slowly. "Arietta!" he called. Arietta quickly responded and she along with her liger jumped to the front.

"Are you in his side?" Gailardia asked plainly.

"Of course. I won't let you hurt Fon Master Ion!" she said.

After hearing that, he held his sword tighter and pointed it to Arietta.

"Then… Don't blame me if you suffer…"

Now... what do you think about this chapter, minna-san? Any review accepted.

Please wait for the next chapter...