Next morning, all four went to different sides of the city, looking for information of ice caves around here. After long morning, everyone finally met for lunch and shared information.

"I found out something about biggest ice caves of Europe" said Yoh, throwing some booklets on table. Everyone read them.

"Yeah, the biggest and the most dangerous" commented Hao, taking a bite of his sandwich "most of it is still undiscovered" Anna nodded.

"Fine place to hide something like a tree" she said in sarcastic tone.

"Yeah. A tree in a fridge. That's downright logical" commented Yoh.

"But that's the place where our clues took us, so" Jeanne said "I suggest taking look around them" she showed to ice waterfalls on booklets.

"This Tree of Life is supposed to be an apple tree, right?" Yoh asked.

"Yeah" Anna answered, now exploring map of caves "some say that it's made of gold" Hao choke on his juice.

"You're serious?" he asked. The blonde nodded.

"Completely. That would explain how it can grow on ice" brothers exchanged looks.

"Oh well, that's the best option for now" stated Hao. This idea still seemed a little unreal for him, but then again, did this entire thing look like real?

"If we don't have anything better to do, we could go now" he suggested, but his suggestion was crushed by Jeanne's steel-hard logical thinking.

"No, we can't. Too many people to work unnoticed. We need to wait for the nightfall"

"Hey, but that's caves!" protested Yoh "we won't see a thing there and gods know what kind of creatures waits for us in there" Anna sighed and loudly placed booklet on table.

"This isn't exactly our choice. We just get along with situation and you, however, rule over light, so there shouldn't be a problem for you to light your way" she said harshly and saw that she actually overreacted. But now the part was said and no turning back.

"Ok, I got it" Yoh said, lowering his gaze, since he wasn't able to hold Anna's hard onyx one.

"Any more objections?" the blonde asked. Silence met her "good" she took a sip of juice.

"Ok, so we just need to wait for another eight hours" Hao said, purposely breaking the uncomfortable silence "any plans for it?"

"I'll take a hike around city" Jeanne said, standing up.

"Yeah, me too" said Yoh and followed Jeanne.

"You, Anna?" Hao asked carefully. He saw that the blonde wasn't in best mood.

"Don't know. Any ideas?" she asked. Hao shrugged shoulders.

"You need some real refreshment" he said and stood up.

"What do you have in mind?" Anna asked. Hao only winked to her.

"How about a good fight in fresh air?"…

Somewhere in a valley, surrounded by high mountains, a loud crash and banging flew through the air. These sounds didn't left the valley, since mountains completely blocked it from spreading around. That was an advantage for two people fighting in this valley.

Anna and Hao were in thick of the fight and neither seemed like giving up for each other. Anna was pushed away by Hao's SOF, but she jumped back and answered the same way.

"Oh, come on, Asakura" the blonde shot, as she landed on ground, waiting for Hao to attack her "you know you can't fight me this way for long" she said in smirking way. Hao only smirked back, as he landed on ground in front of her.

"I don't think you're right, love" he said sweetly. Anna only smiled and disappeared in thin air. Hao knew what she was about to do, so he just jumped up, but Anna caught up with him and was about to strike with her katana, but Hao stopped her with his fiery sword.

"Told you" he said. They fought like this, sometimes in a mid-air, sometimes on the ground, until it started getting dark. The couple stopped fighting suddenly and just stood there, catching their breaths back. Anna's eyes caught the gorgeous and handsome body of Hao, since he removed his shirt and pullover. Not only that, the blonde explored with more relish and longing, how beads of sweat rolled down his honey skin. Anna walked to Hao and kissed him with longing. The guy didn't understand from where it all came from, but then again, who cares? He just pressed Anna harder to his hot body, deepening the kiss.

"I see that…you're feeling…better" Hao whispered, not stopping to kiss her. Anna nodded slightly.

"No duh…Can't you…feel that?" she asked. Hao only let out a slight laugh, but didn't remove his lips from hers. Few minutes away, a voice woke up the couple from their passions.

"Oh jeez, find some room!" shot out Yoh, pretending to be disgusted by this sight. Hao and Anna laughed out loud and even Jeanne let out a laugh. Hao ostentatiously kissed Anna once more and gone to find some warm clothing. Anna too moved to her bags, since they were about to go into real fridge. As the four moved towards the entrance of caves, Yoh noticed Anna and Hao's fighting results.

"Don't you think those mountains could be noticed by someone?" he asked, showing to black, burned rock. Hao and Anna exchanged gloating ironic looks.

"If they would, they'll probably think that there was some kind of alien attack. Humanity's science still can't explain different things in better way" Hao commented. Anna only smirked to it.

"Right, just like they can't see ghosts, but when spirits tickle them, they can feel it" everyone laughed to this.

It was already dark night as they reached the caves. The four entered a wonderful world of ice, which was lit up by slight moonlight.

"Let us risk a little more light" whispered Jeanne, as if afraid of breaking this magnificent silence. She formed a light ball on her palm and everything seemed to come to life, but only for a moment: suddenly, a ball went out and everything once again sunk into penurious light of young moon.

"What the…" Jeanne tried to form a ball once again, but it failed. Anna took a flashlight out of her weapon belt and looked around.

"Why we can't use our powers?" complained Yoh, trying to form wings on his back.

"I don't know" said Hao, seeing how his attempt to create a fire in his palm fails "but this means trouble" Anna walked to the wall and looked into something.

"I think I know why" she said. Others moved to her and she showed a symbol, carved in stony wall: it was a hexagram with circle around it.

"This means the entrapment of six elements" said Jeanne, her face obviously showing trouble.

"Not good" Anna put down her bag and searched it. She took out three flashlights and some daggers "ok, we'll have to use the older technique" she said and gave weapons to them.

"We still need to get on that wall of ice" Hao showed up to the huge waterfall of ice.

"I think I have an idea" Yoh said looking to the daggers and then back to the wall "Anna, how many do you have of these" the blonde squatted to the bag and took out all she had: ten more.

"That's all" she said, placing them on the ground.

"Ok, so, that's my plan: we take these daggers and climb up with them, stabbing one after another" Yoh explained. Jeanne only shook head disapprovingly, searching with her eyes through the ice wall.

"We don't have enough of daggers. This wall's about 30 metres high" she counted the unpleasant news.

"Hmmm…that means one of us has to climb up without leaving daggers and then throw a rope from above" Hao suggested.

"That seems a good idea" Anna said "so, let's draw sticks" she said.

"Hey, there's no wood here" Yoh protested, but Jeanne only broke off some icicles, matching their longs and took one short icicle. Then she gave everyone to draw them. Anna drew one – long. Next was Hao – long as well. Yoh drew – short one. Everybody exchanged looks.

"Oh well, wish me luck" Yoh smiled sheepishly and took some more daggers in case on of them broke. Anna gave him long rope and Yoh wrapped it around himself.

"Be careful up there, ok?" she said. Yoh nodded, smile not fading away from his face. Anna always found it interesting how this guy could smile so often.

"Sure thing" he said. Hao tapped him on shoulder.

"Time for you to show yourself" he said sarcastically. Yoh laughed slightly to this.

"No sweat I will" he said. Now it was Jeanne's turn to wish Yoh good luck. Anna and Hao pretended to be checking some gear so they could have a moment. Jeanne kissed Yoh gently and whispered.

"Just get there alive ok?" Yoh gently stroke his hand through her white cheek.

"Promise" he whispered back and after light kiss on her lips he went to the icy wall and stabbed first dagger to it. These daggers were silver, so they easily pierced ice, going deeper into it. Like this, bit by bit Yoh climbed up. The three, left on ground, lightened his way and anxiously watched his every move.

"He's gonna make it, right?" Jeanne asked, still looking up to Yoh.

"Hope so" answered Hao. Jeanne eyed him furiously.

"What do you mean exactly by saying "hope so"?" she asked. Hao felt like being in trouble.

"That he's going to make it" he said and turned his gaze back to his brother. But inside Hao wasn't that sure. The wall was slippery and completely vertical. Besides that, Yoh never showed interest in doing some sports or strengthening his body in any other way except fighting with his swords. Oh well, for now, Hao only hopped the best.

By Hao's side showed up Yoh's guardian spirit Amidamaru.

"My master's exhausted" he said "what if he…"

"Falls down?" Anna asked, turning her flashlight to Yoh's climbing way.

"Yes, miss, if he does, what then?" Anna only shrugged shoulders.

"You'll go and try to soften his fall" Amidamaru looked to her with amazement.

"But here furyoku is…"

"Forbidden, I know. But for one moment, you'll be able to turn into sword and catch him. All you need to do is choose right moment" Amidamaru gulped.

"Yes, miss" Anna continued lighting up Yoh's way. There was another half of the icefall left and so Yoh decided to take a break. He stabbed another two daggers into ice wall and relocated another two. Now he got a base to stand on. Like this he stood for a while. From down on the ground Hao shot to Yoh.

"How's weather there, bro?" he asked sarcastically. Yoh held his thumb up and smiled.

"Heavenly hot and cold" Hao exchanged looks with Anna and Jeanne. All said that they didn't understand a thing.

"Meaning?" Hao asked.

"I'm completely drenched in sweat, but the air itself is cold" explained Yoh, his voice echoing from walls of the cave.

"Ok, I see. If you had enough rest then try to go on" Hao tightened his leather jacket "we're kinda freezing here" he said more to himself. For real, inside these caves the air was freezing cold, no matter that outside there wasn't a grain of snow, except maybe mountains' peeks.

Another hour passed when Yoh, with aching from tenseness muscles, reached the top and fell on heavenly horizontal surface. He nearly laughed from happiness. On the ground, the three too smiled to Yoh's success. After few minutes, when Yoh got back his breath, he dropped down the rope and attached it to the handle of dagger, which he stabbed into icy ground.

"Better one by one" shot Yoh from above, his voice loudly echoing from walls.

"Ok, we'll do that" Hao shot to him. Anna turned to Jeanne and showed to the rope.

"You go first" she said "and no argues" Anna warned, seeing that Jeanne was about to refuse. The white-haired girl nodded silently and by taking her weapon belt she grabbed rope and slowly started her journey up. Like this, slowly, but ensured, one by one they climbed up, leaving everything except weapons.

On the top of this ice wall, they saw a wonderful view: the cathedral, which was there, obviously never visited by human, was all carved with streams of ice all over walls and six icefalls, coming down from rocky ceiling. And what was more enchanting that this entire hall was lighted up by slight moonlight, even though this was inside the mountains.

"Wow" expressed his opinion Yoh. He didn't go through the tunnel, which led to this cathedral, so he felt as much excited as his friends. Other just stood there, amazed by the beauty and magnificence of nature. Hao walked into centre of cathedral and looked up: the ceiling in the middle was too frozen in ice, making something like a cupola from above.

"This is amazing" he said. Anna walked to one of the icefalls and touched it: suddenly something started to shine and some symbol appeared in the place where Anna's hand was. The blonde gasped from surprise.

"What's wrong?" Hao asked, quickly walking to her. Anna showed him to the symbol: a circle with little fire in it and the fire was surrounded by red dragon. Hao looked to the symbol for a while.

"That's a symbol of fire" he looked around and quickly walked to another icefall and touched it: there appeared a symbol of earth. On other three were symbols of energy, water and air. Only last one left.

"That must be ice" said Jeanne and walked to the last icefall. As she touched it, not only the ice started to shine, but it started cracking and entire cathedral started shaking.

"That's definitely not good" said Yoh, looking how ice cracks. The four stepped back. Suddenly the ice stopped cracking and fell into one pile, leaving only was of icy dust. For a moment everything calmed down and stopped shaking. The four looked around, not understanding what's happening and what to do. Suddenly, a roar from behind the mist shot out and echoed from walls. The four looked to the source of this roar and the sight was followed by gasps: at the arch of collapsed icefall stood a huge light blue dragon, its eyes burning with white fires. The four exchanged looks of surprise and suddenly grown fear. The dragon stood for a while, looking down to four people, who already felt like being late dinner.

"Eee, guys, what now?" Yoh asked carefully. Hao looked past the dragon and said.

"We need to get past him. There's a tunnel there. This big guy must be guarding it" Yoh gulped.

"And how exactly we're going to do that? We still don't have powers right?" Hao overlooked the cathedral and nodded as he saw another sign of entrapped force.

"We don't. We'll have to use weapons we have" the dragon roared – an entire cathedral shook from his loud scream. The dragon attacked the four, but they managed to jump to four different directions, so dragon couldn't make up his mind which to attack first. Anna found herself farthest away from the tunnel and she done the first thing that got into her mind: she took of from the wall and jumped straight onto dragon, hitting its eyes. The creature roared from pain and started shaking his huge head, trying to get rid of the pain. Anna fell on the ground painfully, but she seemed alright, so she just stood up and ran to the arch. Other were doing the same thing, but the dragon already got back its balance and suddenly sent a wave of freezing wind after them. Everything would have been ok, if only the wave didn't reach Jeanne, who was running last. The right side of her body froze to the ground and now the dragon was about to get her for refreshment, but here Yoh came in and threw a dagger which hit dragon's eyes. Poor thing has really unfortunate evening for seeing its path. Yoh released Jeanne from her cold chains and they both ran to Hao and Anna, who were standing on the entrance of the tunnel. The four ran along the tunnel, but ice dragon already chased them into tunnel. The group noticed the tunnel gets lower and lower, until finally the ceiling was so low that dragon couldn't go after them. The four sighed with ease and leaned against the wall.

"That was close" said Yoh, panting heavily.

"The problem is…how we're going to come back" said Jeanne, looking to the dragon, which was still walking in circles, like waiting for its prey to go out.

"We'll think about this later. Maybe our powers will be back" said Hao and showed to walk on. The four walked down the tunnel. Now it wasn't getting lower, but it got wider and wider by the step. It continued in darkness, until a golden light appeared in a distance.

"I didn't know that this was the tunnel to death" said Yoh, looking to the light at the end of the tunnel.

"And this isn't. We found it" said Jeanne. And sure enough, when they walked towards the light, the silhouette of a golden tree began to brighten. Finally, they walked to the tree itself and gasped from the sight: the tree was very tall and big, like an oak. On its big strong branched hung golden apples and on its enormous trunk were written some text.

"This is just fantastic" Anna said, walking to the tree of life, the thing so many adventurers and rich seekers died for. She carefully walked through the flat as a mirror ice and touched the trunk: it was warm. Others closed to the tree and leaned to read the text. It said:

This tree is only the copy of the real one. But you're not seeking for it anyway, so let me give you some clues. The apples of this tree won't give you eternal life, but will let you to use your powers if you have any. The other thing you must do is to go to the country of woods of rain and there find the highest peek, from which you'll see the way you must go on. As you take the apples, my created plan will go on and you'll have only few minutes to stay alive. So, good luck, great adventurer and find what your heart truly seeks, but remember this: only the person with completely pure heart will be able to find the power beyond this world.

Master Mason

"Wow" said Yoh "this entire thing was created by masons. Kinda unbelievable" Jeanne nodded and took her notebook.

"Yeah, it really sounds crazy, but then again" she said, rewriting the text "this entire thing is real craziness" Anna walked around the tree, seeing its golden glow and trying to figure out how it was made.

"If this is a copy, where's the real one?" she asked more to herself.

"Maybe someplace, even more dangerous than this one" said Hao, walking to her. Anna nodded.

"Yeah, would be interesting to see it" the blonde said.

"Well" Hao began, his face turning into shrewd smirk "I guess out next journey is set, ne?" Anna laughed and hugged his next.

"Why not?" she said and the couple was about to sink into passionate kiss, but Yoh called:

"Hey, lovebirds, we gotta go!" he said and showed to the apples "but we need these as well" Jeanne walked to them.

"According to this text, we have only few minutes to get out from this cave" she said.

"The plan must be for cave to collapse" Hao said and showed to the apple above them "one bite must be enough" he said and took one apple from the tree. They took bites and swallowed it: the taste was sweet and juicy. But after this good taste, the ground started to shake. The four, as if agreed, created wings on their backs and quickly flew to the tunnel.

The four flew quickly, like lightening. They pierced the tunnel and got back where the dragon's lair was. They skillfully tricked the dragon and quickly sped towards the icefall they came up. The four dived down, feeling how the entire cave is shaking and few rocks are already falling down from the ceiling. They grabbed their stuff, which they left and were about to speed on to the entrance, but something crashed above them: a dragon spread its wings and roared loudly. The creature dived down and hit the floor with great force, which made everything shake even more. The four quickly flew to the exit, feeling that the dragon's following them. The group got out of the caves and hid behind mountains. They sighed with ease as they saw huge dragon flying away.

"That was extremely close" said Yoh as they heard a loud bang coming from the cave.

"Hell yeah" agreed Hao, sitting down on ground and leaning against the rocky wall of the mountain. Others followed his example and they all watched how the sun slowly rises from behind the horizon…

A/N: Happy New Year to everyone who celebrates ;)