A Contender's Bonds

by Insane Dominator

Sequel to "The Fairy Contender". With the universe and Arceus saved, Nic can now enjoy his life in Fairy Tail and with Erza, but the adventures he's had are far from over. With Zeref and new threats on the rise, he and his Pokemon will learn that there was more to them than they had thought as they fight vicious battles, and learn more of their true power from within.

38. Plucking Thorns From A Black Rose

Adorned in her Lightning Empress Armor, Erza twirled her secondary spear as she lunged after Saboth as her other one shattered in the last fight in the tunnels. The spear's tip met the flat edge of Saboth's sword, discharging Lightning Magic in all directions. The large flare wasn't enough for Saboth to back away as he swatted Erza off, but she gained ground again and relentlessly thrust her spear with fast and furious precision, similar to a Fury Attack. Saboth blocked every blow without moving much, his sword anticipating the angles and strikes and deflecting them without so much as generating even a few sparks. When he had found an opening, Saboth slammed his sword down, generating a bright explosion, prompting Erza to leap back and evaded the expanding wave of chaos energy. She slid along the ground against her heels to a halt, hand to the earth.

The dust cleared out, Saboth glaring at Erza with his dull yellow eyes bent on thrill. "Your reflexes are strong." He admitted. "But that doesn't stop me!" He sprung towards Erza, bringing his sword back to slash. With a hardy cry, he unleashed Demon Karbia in a diagonal fashion, but Erza jumped overhead as means of dodging, the large boulders behind sliced in half instead.

Erza landed behind Saboth, but she twirled her spear around, Saboth not wasting a breath as he pivoted and attacked her repeatedly. Every thrust and slash unleashed was packed with tremendous power, eventually driving itself to where the spear Erza held was barely intact. Now it was Erza who was on the defense.

Saboth stabbed again, Erza having no recourse other than using her spear to counter. With a shout, the tips of their blades met, generating powerful electric and static waves that flashed everything up. It wasn't long until Saboth gained the upper hand, driving his superior sword through Erza's spear, shattering it.

"Damnit!" Erza screamed out when Saboth's boot met her face, sending her sliding onto her back several feet away.

"You're dull." The dark samurai taunted. "I was expecting much more from the likes of you."

Erza stood back up, grunting from that last blow. "I'm not through yet." She testified. Requipping once more, she adorned the Flight Armor, blitzing ahead. "I'll just have to prove it to you! Sonic Claw!" The Requip Mage suddenly became a blinding glint that slashed repeatedly. She reappeared behind Saboth in a slashed pose with eyes shut. There was a stiff moment of pause before something gave out. Erza's eyes widened when her katana began breaking apart, shattering like glass.

"But how?" She exasperated.

Saboth turned around, his armor not even fazed, nee scratched. "You may have speed on your side, but I have the will and endurance!"

Proving his point, he slashed Demon Karbia horizontally, a bright trail following all around the hills and quarry they were dueling in. Boulders went flying in a straight line while Erza was sent flying from the shockwave, screaming from the raw intensity from the attack. The samurai snarled as Erza fell onto her back with a thud.

"My power derives from my undying will of battle. I crave the lust of battle, it is my will, as it is my life." He held up Demon Karbia. "Ever since this blade was forged, there was nothing if not myself worthy of this holy craft of the works from Hell."

Erza stood back up once more, albeit with struggle. Once she was up, she was trying to catch her breath. Her and Saboth's glare were deemed even, intensity flaring between the other. Once she had caught her breath, she spoke once again. "You seem very fond of the path that you follow. It's sad."

"What?" Saboth asked, highly offended.

"To think that such a powerful will comes from your desire to fight only for yourself. Is the underworld truly that selfish, I wonder. I don't know how narrow your point of view is, but if you've always strayed onthis path alone, then it's perhaps time you learn what it means to gain real power."

"Real…power?" Saboth growled. "Real power?! You're nothing but a delusional doll! Wake up and smell the blood in the air!" He took a small pause, his grip on Demon Karbia getting firm. "In battle, when it's just two warriors, what is it that they must focus on? Must they focus on what their fighting for, or what they are fighting against? You can only choose one, because choosing both is not possible. If you fight for others, where is your self-worth? Where do you stand on the spectrum of self-reliance? Not everyone is by other's sides, not that you could fathom."

Erza's eyes narrowed, listening with a cold heart to Saboth's words.

"If you are all alone, there is only yourself to rely on. If you fight for another's cause, where is your ambition? Don't you matter? Don't you have a say in what compels you, or are you too weak to realize what strength you may possess on your own? How can you be so confident in your own power if you don't test it against great numbers, let alone enemies with their own ambitious agendas? You ask yourself these questions over and over, and after experiencing them, it becomes clear." He moved Demon Karbia upfront, gripping with two hands instead of just one. "It becomes clear…that if you can't find your instincts to kill, then your ambitions are nothing but flaws beaten into you by the outside world's influences."

Erza looked a little tempered. "So you're saying you're stronger because your ambition is ran by you and you alone?"

"Yes. Only one matters to you in battle, and that is yourself." Saboth told her.

Erza closed her eyes, holding back her wrath. "And so I'm selfless, and yet you find selfishness to define battle." Her glare returned, her iron will as intense as can be. "I don't let my own agenda cloud the big picture. It's only a fog that keeps me from understanding what I must accomplish." She once again thought of Mark and Laura's explanation of the graphic Impure Underworld. "If I am to survive, I must find my will and strength…and to do so, I must live for the ones I love."

Saboth let a small growl beneath his lips escape. He seemed angrier with Erza's testimony. "So, you are in fact deaf to reality."

"That isn't true. It is you who is the one in the dark."

"Then how do you intend to live if you do not survive battle? A battle is satisfied only when one stands. Running from a fight leads to no victor, and thus nothing gets anywhere." A death-like aura surrounded Saboth as he leered at Erza, the power around him manifesting into the blade. "I honor nothing but what my own heart tells me, and it tells that I must be content with fulfilling what I love – slaying!"

Erza requipped once more, into her sarashi bandages and hakama pants. She held two katana. "So you'd abandon humanity for ambition, and you'd ignore the world's cause all for the lust that your heart cannot be satisfied with. If so, then we shall never meet eye to eye. You have no heart, only a void that will never be realized."

"Such small words coming from a weakling." Saboth lunged ahead, running towards her.

Erza used her quick feet and sprung and lightly raced towards Saboth, both meeting in the center.

---

A shockwave nearly turned the ground upside down, the layer of rock flying haphazardly, quaking the entire chamber and its walls.

The menacing Alpha hollered back at Nic when he scooted back from the shockwave, with Nic reappearing from a dirt cloud. In his hands, Nic manifested a bright pink sphere, gathering lunar energy and pressing his hands towards Alpha, unleashing Moonblast. As the sphere traveled across the earth, a trail of rock and dirt split apart beneath, showing its power.

It closed in on Alpha, but he brought back a gauntlet cloaked in his pitch-black negative energy and thrust forward, piercing the powerful Fairy-type move. The collision of both brutal offensives resulted in yet another cataclysmic explosion, one that engulfed everything in horrific howls of the damned that rattled the earth. Dark and pink waves of intense energy hit the walls and the floor, expanding the rock, let alone thinning it to an extreme.

The dust cleared, and Alpha's tattered cape flared in the cold winds generated. He frowned as his blood red eyes caught note of a thin layer of dirt over a caved-in sector of the ground. It was small, enough for someone to fit inside. He widened his eyes, a powerful, deadly wind expanding outwards and blowing away any means of dust.

The dust went away, revealing a hole. Alpha's sharp incisors gritted, making a very unpleasant sound. "Tch, of course he'd use evasive maneuvers." He looked down at the ground, trying to locate where he may be hiding beneath. He seemed intrigued, but at the same time, annoyed. "Hmmm…"

Suddenly, just when he thought he caught onto something, the ground suddenly began to vibrate with sheer magnitude. The waves of energy made the ground flow up and down like ocean waves, throwing Alpha off balance.

"What the-?!"

Beams of light shot out of the ground, engulfing the ground and atmosphere in a bright rainbow. Alpha's eyes shot from the intense light, burning his rotten skin and screeching like a vivid banshee. He was engulfed in a bright explosion that leveled the ground, shattering everything that stood aboveground. The tunnels ruptured with dust waves expanding outwards.

The bright invasion from beneath faded, revealing leveled ground, and Alpha was hunched over, his skin steaming from the burning sensation. Dark shadows were over his eyes, making it hard to see what he was feeling. It didn't take long until the ground beneath broke apart, a hole popping up and Nic initiating Dig, driving a right uppercut to the deplorable man's chin. The impact sent Alpha flying through the air, while Nic made it aboveground, landing on the flat earth with a small slide back. Alpha slammed against the ground several meters away, quaking the earth with a bone-shattering sound.

Nic stared at the dust Alpha stirred up, unable to see his figure. "Gngh!" He winced harshly, the pain from that contact with Alpha's burning body as harsh as it was touching fire. It was like a rotting virus that Nic flicked off his hand to alleviate the pain.

A strong silence passed before the dust finally began to settle, yet Nic felt no decrease in pressure; in fact, he could actually feel far more intensity in the air as usual. His eyes grew wary and unnerved. The dust suddenly blew in all directions as Alpha was seen up on his feet, hollering with so much monstrous pressure. Dark shockwaves emitted from his throat, rattling the earth and cracking it apart. The intense waves roamed all around, making Nic slide back a couple of feet, but otherwise didn't fall over.

Alpha closed his mouth, staring at Nic like a zombie. His teeth were wide with blood seeping from the black gums. His blood red, feral slits were focused solemnly on Nic.

Nic's eyes slowly narrowed, his will driving in the same direction as it's always been.

Alpha's body shuddered lightly, while craning his neck, snapping it with loud and ear-splitting snaps with every bone as his head turned a full 180 degrees, looking at Nic from a gross angle. His head turning made Nic stare with a distraught expression. 'Is he…even human?' He thought in worry.

Alpha snapped his neck into place, standing straight up and firm against Nic. "You know…you're a little disappointing." He admitted.

"What?" Nic questioned.

"Come on. Don't get me wrong, throwing one off with an obvious evasion followed by an explosive dilemma from below seems a little practical…though the insult to injury at the end of that attack did add some spice I suppose. Still, you can do better."

Nic's fists clutched, his uneasiness growing rapidly as he glared at Alpha. 'He's not even hindered by my attacks? He doesn't even look fazed in the slightest, even after Dazzling Gleam and Dig. Is it because of the Impure Underworld affecting his body? I can't tell if he's even half-dead…or alive.'

"Tell me, are you ever fond of games?"

Alpha's abrupt question left Nic with inquiry. "In what category?"

"Any. Board. Strategy. Kitty games. Even these mind games. Do they entice you? Do they rapture you? Any form of them at all?"

Nic's kept his squinted stare. "Hard-pressed. The only game I had to play at times is strategy in battle." He retorted.

"Strategy you say?" A smirk came across Alpha's face as he hummed aloud. "Yet you make your own rules. Are you unsure about your choice in the matter?"

Nic remained stiff and on guard as Alpha seemed to be toying with him, a mind game it seemed that is making Nic cross lines between his and outdoor logic. Mind games are in fact the most complicated if not wary of your own doubts. This exploration was testing Nic's doubt in his mind, the mind game, one that Nic realized Alpha was doing. Right then and there, he knew that Alpha was amused with mind games.

"Making up ways to overwhelm your enemies; that's the basic agenda of all these games. Kitty games such as tag or hide-and-seek, they test your skills at a young age, seeing how you can evade an enemy for a long period of time, or increase stamina. Evasion let's one devise a strategy, as strategy that plays out like a board game. All the pieces are in place, and now that strategy for had kid game is in place. All those games, they are in full circle. They all share a correspondence with two sides who have a different way of viewing that game."

"And what just might be your implication?" Nic asked.

"My little nuisance that you all took out, Fernando, he viewed the world and its inhabitance as a board game and that alone. He was a fool that I intended to slaughter like lamb, but he was decently useful with providing material for my own game."

"Your game, you say?"

"As you know, the Impure Underworld is a strategy game. Who do you worry about? Who is it that you trust? Can you really kill your dead family members by your own hand? That itself is a mind game. It's amusing to find so many toiled children and helpless worms wiggle until they are plucked out of thin air." Alpha frowned. "Although…I think the equally biggest game next to the Impure Underworld, is the one that inspired the concept; he who cannot beg is no chooser? Ring a bell?"

Nic's eyes widened. "…Beggars and Choosers!" He gasped low.

"Yeah, now you're getting it. A game that bends the mind. Those two meddlesome people, Mark and Laura, your mother and father, they were the center of it all. They were beggars. They were the enemies whose strategy was to beat us at our own game. Then there was the other side…my side, the choosers. It was clear the advantage was ours, and our strategy and mind game seemed swell…then again, we dropped the bargain."

Nic's eyes narrowed in anger.

"Ever since the last time they've interfered with the Impure Underworld, they were always in the beggars' side. They thought that with desperation and hope that they can beat the choosers, the dominant side; my side." He gestured casually into the air, as if showing off. "As you know already, beggars can't be choosers, and choosers who become beggars are unaccepted…but is that much true? This was where the fun began. So, when the spell activated, me made them the deciding bargain. Would the choosers prevail, or would the beggars drop the bargain?" His overzealous gesticulation ceased, staring at Nic with seriousness. "Then…the rules were broken. The mind game was no more, when the beggars actually accepted the bargain, turning them to beggars." His fists clutched tight, seemingly frustrated and escalating. The menacing aura around him climbed to new levels of foul. Decay filled the air, Alpha's hatred brimming. "They were beggars from the beginning, and they will stay as beggars! No exception!"

There was a long silence that passed between the duo. Alpha was looking mad, panting like an animal that was feasting on a tiger with a shuddering gaze. He huffed, staring at Nic as he remained unchanged.

"…you broke the rules created, created by your own hand. That's what deems a hypocrite." Craig retorted.

Alpha growled at him, looking very much angered.

"That's the purpose of your little mind games. You turn a beggar on his own and watch with the choosers as you play god. Yet you broke the rule of accepting beggars, hoping they'd fall for your mind game, that was the first mistake. The second mistake you've made, was thinking us so-called beggars had to believe a chooser chose which path we followed." His body began to emit a strong and pink aura, which made his coat lightly defy gravity. The air around him sparkled with intense force. "Well you're the biggest hypocrite I've ever known, because you played yourself to a corner. When Mom and Dad were the bargain and we accepted them, you thought we'd drop them…unfortunately, I learned something that I thought could enforce, but even which is inevitable. Rules are always broken!"

Alpha opened his mouth, violently hollering at Nic with a sinister dark wave that made small pebbles fly passed him. Still, Nic remained undeterred.

"Choosers such as yourself can play a mind game all you want, or view everything as a kid's game…" Nic lunged ahead, attacking once more. "But we beggars got our own game that we follow, and we got our own rules that defy yours!"

"That's why wars are waged!" Alpha sprung back ahead to attack. "And that's why the world will burn tonight, so humanity and everything will fall apart to the glory of a single chooser!"

"Not if we stand in your way!"

---

A bright pink flash sparked between Mariah and Kecleon as they were in close-range. Mariah faltered as Kecleon ascertained the proximity advantage with her quick feet and immense reflexes. With sharp strikes in her hands and claws, she was able to weasel around and evade the knife-like crystals Mariah made. Mariah stepped backwards, faltering from her lack of close-range strength. She let her eyes narrow as she brought her right side around, attacking with sharp and decisive crystal slashes. The blade reached Kecleon's side, but before it could reach her cheek, she raised her left claw, blocking it, nee shattering the crystal blade to sparkling pieces.

Mariah and Kecleon stared at each other with their proximity close. They seemed to be staring at the other, discerning their capabilities.

"Seems as though you have greater strength than what I had anticipated, little one." Mariah said, remaining unemotionally impressed.

"I work out." Kecleon said in her creepy and monotone voice.

"So I've noticed." Mariah squinted, using her magic once more. Kecleon's sharp senses picked up on the pressure beneath, abruptly jumping into the air and back to avoid a thick pillar of dense pink crystal. The chameleon-like organism landed on the ground, but then disappeared into invisibility once more. Her red pattern remained visible, but too fast to be seen as sharp precipice crystals prodded up from the ground, quickly engulfing the chamber in crystal spikes. With each different spike, the ground shuddered. Kecleon remained invisible, evading them all, the distance between her and Mariah fading with the chances of her close-range combat.

"None can escape my Crystal Magic. Whether you see it or not through those eyes of yours…this world's legacy will shatter like glass, just as your existence shall be." Mariah coldly warned.

---

Magnezone let loose another Mirror Shot as he circled around Gengar. The Steel-type attack went after him, but Gengar dodged with ease. The two still woven in their battle in the air, they continued circling around one another, looking for various openings to strike. Gengar eventually found one is less than a couple seconds, firing another Shadow Ball that Magnezone leaned away from and evaded. The roles were constantly switching back and forth, with them circling around and finding an angle to fire either a Shadow Ball or Mirror Shot, but after minutes on end, neither side was really getting anywhere.

Gengar veered back, smirking still. "Heh, what is this, a dance-off? Quite trying to play around with me."

Magnezone charged ahead, cloaked in his Spark. He lunged with great speed, but Gengar again ascended, dodging as Magnezone continued on and rammed his huge metallic form into the wall, making static flare as a small crater was made.

Gengar descended and looked back at Magnezone. "You're a lot slower than what I took you for."

"I'm not even warmed up yet." Magnezone warned.

Gengar raised a brow. "So you say? Care to prove my point wrong?" Without a second's worth of hesitation, Gengar shot a black aura fist outlined in purple. "Shadow Punch!" The Ghost-type attack shot at Magnezone, striking him hard in the front. Magnezone yelled as he slammed back into the wall.

Gengar chuckled. "Heh, this is getting to be more than a little entertaining."

Magnezone slowly undid himself from the wall once more, a look of twisted pain on his inorganic face as he stared at Gengar.

---

The pitch-black skies thundered, crackling various bolts of lightning. The lightning abruptly shot down towards the earth, howling with the impact of a raging Zekrom. The thunder echoed, breaking wind between Vanessa and Imaci as the former stood on a higher plateau than her. It was like he was a god looking down on a petrified mortal.

"So much Magic Power…" The Aura Mage muttered beneath her breath.

"I can sense your hesitation. I hold nothing against you nor your predicament. However, I have circumstances of my own that I must be obliged to carry out." Imaci told her.

Vanessa stared up with bitter uncertainty. "I remember you." She thought back to the caverns, more specifically when they confronted Imaci when Erza was leading the escape route. "You're the one who intercepted us. It's you again." She finished.

"I can say the same. I recall you as well, young one. I take it that you did not heed my warning about the Rivolta?"

Vanessa's eyes narrowed, indicating Imaci's answer.

"As I thought. You were all played for fools right from the start, and even after I warned you of the Rivolta's individual extent of power, you are as blind as bats."

"Now is that really a way to talk to a lady?" Vanessa inquired, raising a row.

Imaci's bizarre eyes closed. "I am afraid your orientation is out of jurisdiction." A small silence engulfed the atmosphere, the pressure slowly escalating between the two. "You mean to say we view even your humanity, which is but a delusional aspect; such aspect does not coincide with our beliefs; therefore, humanity does not exist. The lives on the face of Earth Land has no significance, not to a mortal perspective, not to a hierarchy."

The girl's blue eyes stared up at him, glaring. "You're a very hard-pressed member of this Rivolta group we've had so much trouble with lately. Are you a Dark Guild?" Vanessa asked.

"Dark Guild?" Imaci questioned. "Guilds…Dark Guilds…this so-called Council; all of these, we have no compromise with, nor do we associate in any way with those categories."

"What…?"

"We are of our own design, our own perspective. We are a cult of those who insist on purging the planet of its mortality. We are destined to make it die, with every weak-minded heart that believes they have a pure soul." Imaci told.

"So, you're not a follower of Zeref?" Vanessa inquired, hinting confusion.

Imaci took a small cause, thunder booming above. "Zeref? My apologies, Vanessa Pularis, but speak on behalf of this Zeref. We have no regard to this man. We belong only to the Impure Underworld itself."

Vanessa's fists clutched tight, her nerves beginning to tingle. 'His aura level is showing dark intentions. We really isn't aligned with Zeref. He's honest at least.'

Once again, lightning showered down behind Imaci, sending shattered rock everywhere. The pieces of rock was like a flashy explosion that made Imaci look more flashy than he ever did before. As his cloaked flapped and shifted, his fixation was rendered unchanged.

"Tell me, are you aware of what happened just now?" Imaci asked.

Vanessa remained silent, unsure as to where Imaci was going with this conversation.

"Allow me to answer your silence, young one. As you know, you have defeated Fernando, which has caught our undivided attention. And so, we basically followed the concept of divide and conquer. Since he had so much complications, that means to ensure that we do not cause cataclysmic damage onto ourselves, nor harm our most treasured artifact. You can guess what the artifact may be given your time here."

Vanessa frowned coldly, looking uneased. "…the incantation circle."

Imaci nodded. "Correct."

"From way you word it, it sounds like you're more independent than we give you credit for." Vanessa pointed out. "Are you sincerely on the same ideal with everyone as you claim the Rivolta as it is?"

A strong silence thus fell upon the two, which caused the growing pressure in the area. There was no wind that blew, it was gone cold. Another shiver traveled down Vanessa's spine as Imaci stared bluntly at the mage inferior to her.

"The Rivolta…is complicated." Imaci confessed. "We in fact have one goal, to bring about the Impure Underworld. However, what we expect after that is out of one's jurisdiction of questioning I am afraid." The lightning in the sky flashed once more, shooting down a large bolt that was fast, furious, and gathered in Imaci's hand. Heinous static flared in his right hand, bright as a high-beam flashlight.

Vanessa's eyes widened. "That's…"

"I shall not lie. I too have my own reasons and my own goals. If they are to be met, I must stay by the Rivolta's code." He brought his electrified arm back. "And that means, no survivors!"

Vanessa's own Magic Power began to rise. "But then what are your goals? Tell me!"

Imaci's glare bored into her soul, leaving the young Pularis to falter back a step, unnerved. "As I had explained before, that is out of jurisdiction. I am sorry, Vanessa Pularis, but I must eradicate you and your soul from the face of this planet." Imaci brought his arm ahead. "The time to purge has begun!"

Imaci fired n intense and sharp beam of lightning from his stretched-out hand, almost striking Vanessa if not for her dodging. The ground shattered and a shockwave expanded outwards, making Vanessa slide backwards and grunt at the blow that made her stop mere inches away from a rock behind. No time was given for Imaci to even think of withdrawal as he kept his arm extended, firing another blast of intense lightning. The horrendous lightning blitzed and electrified the air, yet Vanessa held her ground this time.

"Aura Guard!"

Vanessa created a teal shield of aura that took the intense lightning attack. The air roared with a massive booming sound most unpleasant. The ground shuddered as Vanessa winced, barely keeping her barrier intact, even after the lightning dissipated.

"Tell me, why are you aligned with Alpha? Why go to such lengths to bring the world to its end?" Vanessa demanded.

Alpha instead raised his arm. He stared coldly at Vanessa as he focused his Magic Power in the air above. He brought his arm down, and the pitch-black skies above flashed several hundred glints like it were a light show going off. Dozens of beam-like bolts came crashing down onto Vanessa, crackling like firecrackers as they blazed through the atmosphere.

As time slowed down, Imaci narrowed his eyes. 'Lightning flashes faster than the eye could trace. If I recall from our previous confrontation, she is the slowest of the two Pularis offspring. She cannot attack nor defend as fast as the other.'

Vanessa spread her legs, taking an initiative and spreading her arms out to both sides. Her hands and wrists were enveloped in teal, preparing as lightning came down. "Nugatory Burst!" The ground around her suddenly erupted with dense pillars of teal, which shot straight up and met the random blasts of lightning without a single misstep. The lightning and aura cancelled out, engulfing the airspace in a very light cloud of static.

Imaci remained unemotionally impressed by the counter, instead he crouched his legs, thud jumping high.

Vanessa took a stance to ready for his assault. "Seems like I have to coax you to tell me your reasons!" She reached up at him, firing a dense beam of teal aura at him that raced through the sky. Imaci reacted fast enough to extend his hand down, exerting a powerful blast of lightning of sheer force. The two attacks met in the center if the atmosphere, congregating a discharge of bright ions. Both remained undeterred as they seemed neck and neck, but it didn't last long.

Imaci narrowed his eyes. Suddenly the edges of his attack crackled and controlled their own trajectory, guiding themselves down towards Vanessa by following her Emanation seem in a spiral fashion. Vanessa's eyes widened. 'He's channeling his Magic Power through my own?!' Vanessa abruptly moved out of the way, ducking as the spiraling lightning reached her spot, reducing the rock behind into crushed bits.

Vanessa slid along the ground, maintaining footing as she stopped.

In midair still, Imaci pointed his left middle and index fingers at the ground, making the two fingers spark. "You aren't the only one who is able to channel magic from means of thin air, young one."

Vanessa's eyes shot wide when lightning beneath was cracking up the ground. Stirred rock and earth rattled as discharged energy had begun ripping through the landscape. Vanessa looked around, feeling an intense pressure heating up the cooled atmosphere; her goosebumps remained bewildered, however.

'He can channel so much Magic Power from just two fingers alone?!' She gasped, realizing she was out of time.

"Kage Volta!"

The ground split apart in an immense explosion of lightning that engulfed everything. A pillar of lightning shot into the sky, sending static through the rocks in the quarry. The explosion traveled through the ground, sending a strong magnitude all around.

---

Nic spun into Alpha via Drill Run. As he did, he emitted a sparkling wind around him, creating a pink cyclone that was Fairy Wind. With that as a booster and veil, the winds made Alpha cover up with his gauntlets while Nic's Drill Run struck his actual gauntlets, the increased power making Alpha lose footing and slide backwards. Both slid backwards to a stop, glaring at the other harshly.

Alpha exerted another menacing roar, his sharp teeth prominent as dark shockwaves pulsated through the thick ground. A condensed beam of burning darkness blasted from his mouth, almost like a negative laser beam that disintegrated rock.

Nic jumped and dodged, evading the beam that bored right down the thick tunnel behind, disappearing into the distance. A few moments passed, before a sudden explosion of darkness exerted from the far end, sending dark waves of energy back through the tunnel towards Nic's back. As Nic landed, he could feel his back sting along with his arms as they felt like they were rotting off.

Alpha chuckled as his own backlash was actually very refreshing to him. "You truly are a deplorable scumbag of humanity, freak!" He raised his hands and made darkness engulf the forearms. He slammed them down, sending a shockwave of darkness that erupted out from underneath, eradicating rock and expanding outwards towards Nic.

Nic raised his foot and stomped down ahead. "Earthquake!"

Once he stomped down, everything was eradicated. The dark shockwaves met with the shockwaves and raised earth from Nic's vicious assault. Earthquake met Alpha's intense attack. The tunnels all throughout the area had shattered ground that continued to crack. The intensity of the attacks continued to rise as earth and a dust storm blew everywhere, the ground shuddering equally as hard as it was outside. The combined rumbling caused all of the hills and quarry alike to jump briefly, dust flaring from the rocks and tunnels of what Alpha and Imaci alike did.

As the quaking and dust stopped, Nic was seen faltering, struggling to stand firmly on his two feet. It was clear he sustained serious damage. He grunted as he looked through the dissipating dust cloud, Alpha seen standing on his two feet, his tattered cape still behind his back.

Nic's teeth gritted. "You…!"

"You're not too shabby, if I had to say so myself." Alpha admitted. "I was wondering whether or not you were such a threat…" He smirked. "Though as much as you are one, I think I've enticed myself a little too excessively. Don't you think?"

Nic's eyes squinted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Alpha glared at Nic, his blood red eyes boring into his soul. Nic remained silent as his foe gave an ominous appeal.

"I'd rather answer you…but you see, I have engaged myself with you for a bit much than I'd originally bargained for. It would appear I used a little too much of my new power tested on you. I think I overdid it a bit…for just a mere 10%."

Nic's eyes shot wide open. "What…did you just say? 10%?"

Alpha cocked his head, proving superiority. "Yeah, that's right. I'd hate to do this to myself since I never hold back, but if I don't supply enough Magic Power, the spell will collapse if my amount is…insufficient." He looked off towards the side, his smirk turning serious. "And besides, I'm pretty sure your family is having its own affairs they're having trouble with."

Again, Nic's shock sprung.

"You felt it there, I see it in those annoying eyes that I hate so much. That shockwave, timed just right I might add, that just happens to be Imaci."

"Imaci…?" Nic took a moment to gather up his intellect on the Rivolta, and regarding their names. His shock came to fruition a third time in a row. "Wait, that Lightning Mage!" He gasped.

"Whoever he's facing, they better pray he doesn't unleash his trump card. I'd be surprised if they learned what his real power was." Alpha looked back at Nic, smirking still. "You know, there's something about you guys that intrigues me." He said.

Nic remained silent as he glared at Alpha.

"Your blood is most surprising, in more ways than one. What you see before is me, but then again, who is this 'me' that you are referring to? I am in fact Alpha, as I rule the Rivolta, but what's become of me? Why am I here? Why do I do what I love? Nic Pularis, if you and your comrades can somehow stop us, you may live long enough to learn of these questions." Alpha began to turn away. "But that'll never happen."

Nic stepped forward. "Wait. Hold on!"

"Sorry, fool, but I suddenly lost interest. I'm not like Saboth, I don't take a battle to a finish with one man. If you really wanna finish this…come and find me, or rather go and save your comrades. Your choice."

Alpha then walked into the darkness of the chamber, his menacing red eyes fading away and his signature vanishing.

"Wait…" But it was too late. Nic was left alone in the bewildering darkness of the chamber, Alpha abandoning their quarrel and attending to other needs. "…damnit." What Alpha said lingered around in Nic's mind; the Magic Power looming around, the immense pressure in the atmosphere, and the questions Alpha gave him. "Alpha, just who are you?" Nic's fists slowly balled. "I don't know who you are, or who you think you are, but there's no way that we're going to allow the Rivolta to reign as they please." His eyes suddenly widened, realization dawning upon him. "Wait…Erza! Vanessa!" He suddenly took off running towards the exit. "Mom, Dad, everyone, hang on!"

Nic ran through the dark tunnels, heading down towards the unknown in search of the others. 'As much as Alpha is important, we can't stand up to him divided like we are. I gotta find everyone, and hurry!'

---

The ground sizzled from the attack that was unleashed, lightning crackling continuously in the sky as thunder raged. It echoed all throughout the quarry and hills, with Imaci landing on the electrified ground. He frowned as he stared coldly at the area where the spell was most concentrated, which was where Vanessa was located. The dust and static began to diminish, revealing the youngest of the Pularis family still alive, her body having more than a few scratches as she had labored breathing. What was different from before was that around her was a very think veil of aura, which chipped apart like broken glass in a lot of places.

"You've survived that, pity." Imaci informed. "You've pulled up another of your defense shields at the last nanosecond. Quick-witted of you, but there's no guarantee that it will work a second time."

Vanessa grunted as she was barely on her feet, her uneasiness growing. She was just hit with an immense level of Magic Power, anyone with high reserves could've felt what an enormous amount it took up, yet Imaci used it so casually. What left her near-trembling…was that she still felt so much Magic Power left.

"What…who are you?" Vanessa asked.

"Who am I? I am but a mortal with a name, as are you. We are two entities that can never coexist for reasons. There is humanity…and self-worth." He answered. "Vanessa, I am nothing more than a man that intends to purge the world's dark and light alike, a sense in which all can remain as one entity. A state of purgatory, as opposed…" His eyes narrowed. "To the bitter struggle that will never end between humanity."

Vanessa's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

"It matters not now. If you cannot understand what I am capable of comprehending, then all you need to know is my name, as other questions are hereby pointless." Lightning from across the sky gathered into a single spot, igniting the pitch-blackness in a blue glory.

Vanessa looked up, her eyes wide once more. "This magic…"

"I am Imaci…and this is where you have met your end."

---

Alpha's boots echoed through the darkness of the ground as he reappeared in another chamber, a very large one. He strolled ever so casually over large spider and bat organs and parts. Hearing the crunching sounds was music to his ears. He advanced over towards the Impure Underworld circle, seeing as how it's been untouched.

Standing off to the side was Vermilius, his scythe over his shoulder and his hood over his mask-like face. "Alpha." He greeted.

"Vermilius, I trust that there weren't any intrusions with the Impure Underworld while I was out on a small errand now, right?" Alpha's inquiry sounded more like a questionable threat, though Vermilius seemed unfazed by his master's innuendo.

"The silence of graves to be dug was all that was heard." The reaper informed.

Alpha walked passed his comrade. "Very well." Slowly, he approached the circle and entered the Impure Underworld's dark purple incantations, which slowly became a violet color. As he reached the center, standing in the middle of the spell's circle, the immense and deadly decay of flesh and power filled his black lungs with a breath of 'fresh air'. After taking in the power, he began to regulate his own by standing still. "Ah." He sighed. "It's nice to see such terror quell at my feet."

"Shall I leave you be?" Vermilius inquired.

Alpha's bloody glance turned towards him. "No, not necessarily. I need you to stay close by and make sure not a single thing gets within a hundred feet of my spell. Is that understood?" He ordered.

"As you insist." Vermilius nodded.

Alpha snickered as he turned around. "Not even a few hours until the blood moon rises. I'm feeling my skin crawl." His smirk intensified. "I'm intrigued."

"Hm?" Vermilius was rendered curious.

"I wonder if Nic and those Pularis members actually make it to the end like they did before? History would be repeating itself…how ironic." His bloodied eyes dropped. "History repeats constantly, whether we believe it or not. The same trigger is always pulled twice, if not in another time or place. Guns are fired, people perishing…but when the moon reaches its peak, that'll all be eternal. Blood will spill until every life in the seas and land alike are nothing but dim-lit bodies. I will break every bone, rip out every fiber of their hearts and brains, and watch as I crush all their skulls like crackers. And when I'm done…I will stomp on their mush and throw it into a pile for me to obliterate." His shuddering bloodlust went towards the side again. "Those fools coming closer…I dare not let that happen a second time. Purge and rip them apart. Leave no one but myself standing above all…"

His voice trailed off as he was huffing, regulating his adrenaline through his magic that ran through the letters, turning the spell dark violet.

Vermilius turned away, but remained close by as he wanted to savor the need to slowly torture the Pularis with a small grin on his face. He too was getting excited.

Meanwhile, outside over the pitch-black sky that was slowly spreading across Fiore, the moon was slowly rising, being a bloody red color.

---

Slowly, back and forth, blasts of green and black misty spheres went blazing in opposite directions. They were constantly paralleled, moving in one direction. It was Mark and Crowhaw as neither was giving an inch as they blasted back and forth with magic as one ran while the other floated in the same direction. They were unable to get a fair shot in because the other was moving unevenly. Eventually, Mark slid on his heels to a halt, shifting to face Crowhaw and unleash a green beam. To counter, Crowhaw turned to black mist, dodging the attack and reappearing above.

Mark grunted as he missed again, but didn't deter. He jumped away as Crowhaw unleashed a misty dark beam down onto him, scooting back towards the wall of the chamber.

Gently, Crowhaw descended to a lower altitude, staring at Mark. "Is that the best that you can do? I had expected more from such a novice of magic." He taunted. He ignored Mark's gritting teeth and reached ahead, exerting a black whirlwind from his sleeve.

"Tch! Hrah!" Mark's hands glowed green and he treated an Aura Guard, the translucent green dome shielding him from the impending black winds that would've slammed his old frame against the wall. When the winds stopped, the shield dissipated, but Crowhaw was right in front of Mark, startling him.

"How did-!"

Mark was abruptly cut off when Crowhaw's hand grabbed his neck and strung him against the wall, making the back of Mark's head throb. Crowhaw remained levitating, choking Mark without any faltering in his hold on the elder-looking man. His stare was so casual that it was frightening. He wasn't even smirking beneath his high collar. "You appear to have a strong will. But that won't save you, neither from myself, nor the world's peril."

Mark struggled to break free, but he was held by the neck, his feet unable to touch the ground. Despite the half-dead man's lack of air, he was able to open an eye. "Grrr…that's what you think, pal!" Crowhaw's eyes widened when Mark's shoes were cloaked in green aura, raising his left one to kick the ghostly man's abdomen. That did the trick as he was freed from his hold, landing on his two feet with a hefty gasp for air. Crowhaw's eyes widened when Mark reeled back a glowing green fist, but he evaded left, and then shifted right, avoided the gorilla-like wailing punches.

When Mark punched once again, Crowhaw floated backwards, carefully landing on the ground a safe distance away from close-range.

"You're a pain." Mark grunted.

"Likewise." Crowhaw retorted.

"How does evading and using cliché choking going to make you win? Choking ain't too fair if you ask me. I should know…" He recalled choking Nic a lot in the childhood, in more ways than one. He shook that out of his head and focused on the task at hand.

"Evasion is an instinct; to a ghost, such a tactic is second-nature." Crowhaw stated. "If you cannot protect your blind spots, you are more than likely nothing more than an open book with pages of loose content."

"Okay then, then how's about reading me? Let's start with this little trick called…chapter one!" Mark punched forward, firing fist blasts of green aura. The small green beams were constantly fired, yet Crowhaw dodged without little trouble and closed in on Mark without so much as turning into a mist.

Time slowed down as the two were shoulder to shoulder, a bright background around them. Crowhaw spoke. "As I said, you are easy to re-GWOH!" He again went wide-eyed as a sharp pain went through his abdomen. Mark smirked, feeling his fist cloaked in aura and scoring a right hook into Crowhaw's gut.

"Heh…!" Mark followed through with the punch. "Don't peg me for a dumbass!"

Crowhaw went tumbling through the air, barely regaining himself.

"I ain't that easy to read, ghost. You think you're a closed book? Well that's a little mistake that'll cost you big time." Mark said. He raised his hands, slamming them against the ground. "We're stopping you, and your little Rivolta just as we said before!"

The ground exerted beams of green aura that shot randomly, the exasperated attack leaving Crowhaw with nowhere to run. The green beams struck him, tracking his aura in the one spot and engulfing him in a small yet powerful explosion. Crowhaw descended from the smoke cloud, rather fall out of the sky with a pained grunt escaping him.

Mark lunged at him, his fist coated in green aura. "Don't you dare underestimate what one man can do!" With a mighty sock to the cheek as the ghostly man descended, Mark followed through with his punch, the intense impact sending Crowhaw flying super-fast into the opposite wall, making dust flare. Mark landed on the ground several feet away and on a knee, his chest expanding and then contracting.

"I'm getting…too old for this…" He panting, nearly lurching from the sudden exercise. He wiped the spit from his lip, his breathing coming around as he looked at the dust cloud. The rocks crumbled to pieces and he stood back up on his own two feet. He frowned deeply at the pile of rocks that Crowhaw was buried underneath.

"You're a tough nut to crack, I'll grant you that. This Rivolta group, it always has a way with humanity. You think that humanity is some form of possession that you can just discard or look over, always seeing how damaged and unrenewable it may be. How ironic, being bent on some deplorable aspect. What a sad life, I pity you."

There was a brief silence then.

"…you don't know the half of it."

Mark's surprise was visible.

The crumbling rock pile began to emit black mist that went through the cracks. The mist fizzled and gathered above, solidifying into Crowhaw as he was standing as he always was, having little damage it seemed. "Humanity is really something that is best left unsaid about our kind. We don't take lightly to what is good about the world. Because as you know, anything good always has a darkness." His one eye narrowed. "If you ask me, it's ironic how I'm speaking to an actual example."

Mark was not appreciating the inquiry. He stared coldly at Crowhaw as he began to ascend a few feet.

"You have seen humanity in all of its graphic colors in the past, have you not? You were there when the last Impure Underworld was unleashed. You saw the hatred and spite generated used as an actual weapon. That very same property is what conspired the usage of one man over another, to fight and wage battles using their arsenal, whether it'd be man or machinery. Essentially, both types are weapons in the end."

"Huh?" Mark raised a brow.

"Man uses machinery. Machinery kills. Man fights over machinery. Man kills machine. It's an always ongoing struggle, and as long as man is sought for power over themselves, they can never be seen in a good light. There's too much filth in humanity. Wars are waged, people die, and there is mourning. This resorts to hate, because when man kills man, hatred erupts."

"What are you saying?" Mark asked. "Are you implying that I'm nothing but rotten humanity."

"I'm saying that however you see it, it doesn't change the fact that the darkness in your heart is always there. As long as darkness and light continue the balance, man will forever keep the chain going. The circle of hate and pain with always be infinite. With the Impure Underworld, the balance can finally collapse. At last, humanity will fall to its bitter colors; its true colors. You can say you deny it, but you are the same as any other heartless man who views hate and pain, at least at one point." When Crowhaw one eye caught Mark shocked, he hit the nail right on the head. "When Alpha killed your brother-in-law, where did you exert that hate and pain to? You foolishly chose to unleash your hate and pain onto your child. You beat him to a bloody pulp because you couldn't save this Vince Pularis; and you punished this young boy for resembling the one good aspect of humanity when it was so dark in the hour. That light was gone, and inhumanity had reigned until your death. Death itself brings inhumane qualities onto those closest to the loved one, such as hate and no forgiveness. Pain is constant and ever-present, yet you can suppress it, but when it is unleashed, there will always be manslaughter an injustice. There is never a true justice, thus man accepts that and resorts to killing and violence. Inhumane never ends, and thus, it must take out humanity's goodness."

Mark clutched his fists tightly, uneasy with what Crowhaw said of him. "You…!" He growled, pained with Crowhaw reminding him of Vince. "What gives you the right to decide to speak so highly of the terrible things of humanity?!"

"Because of you." Crowhaw bluntly answered.

Mark blinked. "Because of…me?"

"You. Your spouse. Your children. You all contribute to humanity's dark side. The turmoil and bloodlust when you feel pain and hate is being used right now and growing to destroy the world. Just having that much bottled up rage and torment is inhumane."

"And yet you cast the blame onto us, when it was really another?" Mark implied.

"It was dealt by your hand. Every human that is born cries or feels emotion. As long as they feel pain or hate to another, inhumane quality will forever plunge the world into chaos. I have accepted this long ago. If the world will forever fight and kill for its resources, then there is no point in trying to fight it." His one eye shut. "I'm sorry, but that is how it must be-!" Crowhaw was abruptly cut off when Mark shot a single sphere of green energy from his palms. Scoring a hit onto Crowhaw, making him hit the wall again.

"Guh!" Crowhaw dropped to his behind, feeling pain from his back. He winced, but he opened his eye as a strong magical pressure could be felt. He looked up, seeing Mark cloaked in a green outline.

"Quit talking smack already, we get it. This ain't our first rodeo with Tauros, pal." The father Pularis said, his fists balling. "Yes, I admit, I hated Alpha, and I always will, for he took a good man away from me and my wife. He left a pain in our hearts, and that only served to fuel our need to fulfill our dark need to destroy and kill… but you know what, we held out for as long as we could. We tried our best, and yet still hurt our kids. We were terrible role models and we went ballistic. That we can say was inhumane of us to do. We can never deny that we've did a lot of things that we regret in our lives…but even as I am dead, that doesn't mean I can always rely on pain and hate for answers. Sometimes, it's the conviction of love from others, like Vince had when he went to prove Alpha wrong. Everyone has wrong in them, but you and this Rivolta of yours, it's nothing but wrong." He recalled Fernando from before, and Hiruzen when he was reincarnated to be a savage killer. "You wanna kill everything and use the dead to make loved ones bitter and cry as they are helpless. You see nothing but bitterness and will be content with blood spilled. If you ask me, you're the true definition of inhumane."

Crowhaw stood back up, against levitating. "And what of this nonsense? Humanity does not belong in the Rivolta's agenda."

The aura around Mark began to intensify greatly. "You may view the world and everything as something that will never achieve peace, but answers vary. You wanna slaughter all so that your answer of no humanity is constant, well I say we defy inhumanity! We will use everything that we did wrong and atone, by saving this world a second time!"

Mark punched forward, sending a blast of aura at Crowhaw. However, Crowhaw was prepared for it. "Pitiful." He extended his sleeve out, exerted yet another black whirlwind that blew ahead, block the singular blast of green aura. The black and green energy dissipated, leaving both yet again at a standstill. "If one truly believes they can change humanity…then they must prove it. Whoever's will is stronger, will survive and reshape the meaning of what they are fighting for. If one is fighting for humanity, then whoever wins proves their side is superior. Failure…is not an option!" Crowhaw extended his arm ahead and unleashed a misty black sphere, but Mark lunged to the side, evading the hollow blast of magic and went lunging after his foe. As he ran, green aura embedded into his fists, and then he took a spring to the air, coming down to a knee and slamming a fist into the ground. The ground shuddered as a linear path of green aura traveled towards Crowhaw, yet he remained calm and didn't make unsettling movements. Instead, he became black mist, disappearing before the attack could hit him. The attack pressed on, erupting the wall behind. Crowhaw reappeared a few feet aboveground, keeping a weary gaze on Mark.

"HRAH!" Once again, Mark unleashed another intense beam of aura.

"Predictable." Crowhaw, once again, morphed his structure to become a black mist. The beam missed, and the Ghost Mage spiraled up the beam, trailing back towards Mark. When he reappeared in front of the half-dead man, he began to exercise a flurry of soft punches, but Mark leaned left and right, dodging each individual punch thrown at him.

When the opening arose, Crowhaw's wrist got caught, leaving his right side exposed. His eye widened, his guard cut off. "You know, it ain't too bright to get close to a Pularis, especially when we're so gifted on close-range brutalizing." His left fist was raised, clutching and drawing in swirling green aura. The power he drew from his aura was heavily intensifying.

Crowhaw remained unmoved, unable to break free. 'His aura is trapping me. I can't break free!'

"This one's for my family!" Mark let out a primal cry as he punched forward, connecting with Crowhaw's bizarre eyepiece. The material shattered, time momentarily slowing down as the impact made an air ripple exert, making the ground shudder. Crowhaw sailed backwards into a tumble, sliding and flipping unto he smashed into the rock pile he was underneath from before. The impact even made Crowhaw's conical straw hat fly off, fluttering down until it had reached the ground far away, out of sight and out of mind.

Mark smirked as Crowhaw was not moving. "Like I said, humanity isn't a tool you can overlook nor discard."

A long silence was falling down onto the duo, but for some odd reason, Mark was feeling a very ominous aura rising. His eyes showed shock, the atmospheric pressure morphing. 'Wait…what's this Magic Power? It's…it's changing.' He looked back at Crowhaw with shrilled horror. "And what's up with this aura of his? I thought I…"

Crowhaw nudged, a groan coming from him. Mark's eyes widened, seeing Crowhaw lift his head.

"You shouldn't have done that." The Ghost Mage warned. There was something wrong with his voice. Normally, it'd be deep and stern, similar to Imaci, but now it seemed more shrilled, like a groggy demon tune in a way.

Mark felt sweat dripping from his side, his horror rising. "What…what is…?! What the hell are you?! What is that?!" He referred to what was beneath the eyepiece he shattered, where instead of skin and normal eye, he saw a white bone-like armor skin, and the eye was pitch-black, with shrunken yellow iris and sharp black sclera.

"What you had just undone is something that was meant to be kept on." Crowhaw stood up, standing on his two feet once more. "What you have been fighting was what minimal prowess I could've unleashed. You…have undid my seal."

"Your…seal?" Mark gasped, seeing the slow changes happening to Crowhaw.

Crowhaw's jaws and mouth began to grow visible underneath the high collar, which was tattered. "Tell me, do you believe in ghost?" His mouth was monstrously wide, all of the bony sharp teeth representing Hell itself. "Do you believe in the haunted spirits that would never hope to pass on?" The cloak he had on was starting to tear as sharp white horns protruded from the shoulders. His skin itself was turning bony white, his fingers becoming scythe-like claws. "Ages ago…there was a man who was a vagabond. He has seen many folklore, his parents, family, everyone he knew, he could see their actual spirits, see their souls; their ghosts. As time went on, he became so enraptured in the arts of these ghosts that the more he learned of there being good ones, he realized there were ghosts who would kill other ghosts." As he spoke, his feet began to alter. They became a white tail, wispy like a ghost. His hair was next to change. It was growing longer and spikier, almost the same length as Gajeel's. His other eye became like his right one."My family's ghosts were terrorized by these unhappy spirits, and as I was the last standing, they came after me on a stormy night. Lightning flashes as they clawed at my spirit and soul. I fought as hard as I could, but was my humanity enough to leave me be? No! This was my true power after I came to realize abandoning all humanity was needed. I slaughtered those spirits, but I was never satisfied, I will never be, so long as there's flesh shielding the unkindly good that everyone bottles up and denies! This…is the power of fear!" Crowhaw lurched, opening his huge jaws and exerting a grim screech that bellowed with so much Magic Power. The shockwaves rippled, cracking up the ground.

Mark covered his ears, unable to hear him. "GAH!"

The screeching eventually ceased, yet Crowhaw levitated, his ghostly tail lashing through the atmosphere. "With my seal undone, I have become nearly ten times more powerful." He floated a little closer. "The Rivolta took me in, realizing that I discarded all that I believed to be innocent and good. There is no such thing as a happy place, because happiness never lasts forever, and now…" His hollow eyes narrowed. "You will see why."

Mark's fists balled. He could feel his astonishment grow.

---

Mariah stopped her fighting momentarily, looking back in the tunnel blocked off by crystal. Kecleon stopped as well, feeling an ominous force that was coupled by an unbelievable hollowing wail like that of undead spirits.

Kecleon's head straightened out. "Eh?"

Elsewhere, outside, the hollow wail and the spike of Magic Power reached Erza and Saboth, both clashing their blades continuously and backed off briefly as they could feel the magic flare.

The sound Erza heard was most gruesome that it left her uneased. "What…is that sound?" She muttered.

Saboth adjusted his stance, smirking. Heh, seems Crowhaw's seal has been undone."

Vanessa went wide-eyed as her body was covered in scrapes. She looked up at Imaci as he said the exact same thing unknowingly. "His…seal?"

"The man who took you, that was just a façade. The real monster has just been awakened." Imaci warned.

Nic was in his Sky Form, racing down the same tunnel as before, feeling the unbelievable pressure that was just unleashed. His uneasiness has also increased, as did Magnezone, and Laura. All of them could feel the ghastly appeal. 'What's going on?'

---

Crowhaw lifted his long claws to his side, growling as he glared at Mark, tail lashing continuously. He watched Mark look like he was borderline trembling from his immense spike in Magic Power. A malicious shriek emanated from the ghostly hollow, and then everything went pitch-black.

Mark looked around, unable to see anything. "Hey, what the heck?

A cold chill went down spine when he felt a tingling sensation from behind. "Boo."

Mark turned around, terror making his face pale as the pitch-black flickered briefly to reveal Crowhaw inches away from his face, mouth wide open and shrieking like a bewildered demon from Hell. Mark stuttered backwards, pitch-black again filling the chamber. The lights came back on and Crowhaw was in his face again, scaring Mark. Again, Mark faltered in yet another direction. He couldn't stop paling as those images of Crowhaw were always in front of him. He was so psyched out that he fell onto his behind, panting heavily.

The pitch-black around him manifested and converged to a single point in Crowhaw's center. The killer ghost man sneering as the manifested Magic Power released in a pitch-black laser beam that was far more enormous compared to last time. The beam shattered the ground, blitzing towards Mark.

The Aura Mage tried to put up another one of his green shields, but just as the attack hit the shield, it didn't even hold up for two seconds before it shattered, engulfing Mark in a painful and voluminous explosion of darkness that expanded like a massive dome. The atmosphere and walls broke apart, shattering like glass. Mark hollered as his form hit the expanded walls, slamming harshly and falling flat onto his stomach, hitting the leveled ground.

Crowhaw hissed in delight.

"Damn…you bastard!" Mark grunted as he tried to get up, barely making it to his knees.

Crowhaw lunged at him, his tail and bottom of coat becoming wispy black mist as he charged. Mark retaliated as hard as he could, unleashing a powerful green punch as he closed in. When the attack made contact with the head, however, the aura went straight through, unlike last time.

"What…?" Mark muttered. 'How is he evading. I thought with my aura, I could hit a ghost. Did his structure change with his power?'

The ghost man recoiled backwards and hissed as he arched above, sharp claws stretched out as he slashed. Mark was unable to defend as Crowhaw raked with his scythe-like fingers, creating trails of black with red outlining that enveloped him like fire. The ground again shuddered for the umpteenth time as Mark slid backwards again, his front battered and bruised.

Crowhaw slashed again, making the raking darkness and expanding projectile attack. Mark saw the expanding black shockwave and ducked. He tumbled off to the side, barely evading as it smashed into the wall, making black tear into the rock. A hefty crevice was made, but that only served to startle Mark.

'Just how much power did he gain?' He wondered.

Crowhaw charged again, his ghostly body swerving through the atmosphere. Mark looked back at him, but was too late when Crowhaw was far faster than what's been anticipated. The man's eyes widened when Crowhaw tore into his body. His fingers clutched and dug into his ribs and skin, impaling them, along with his sharp teeth tearing into his shoulder. Mark could feel nothing, yet at the same time, his body giving out. He remained wide-eyed, unable to respond as Crowhaw continued to push, shoving with all his ghostly might to pin Mark's back into the wall. The impact was so strong that Mark barely blacked out.

The ghost man continued to sink his fangs into his shoulder, speaking. "What good is any man who can't defend himself? If one cannot defend himself, they cannot defend others. You aren't strong, just like the good side of humanity." He dug his scythe-like fingertips deeper, making Mark's body unable to respond. The man was helpless as his half-dead form was barely hanging on.

Suddenly, Mark began to recall the events that transpired in regards to his family with the Impure Underworld spell. He began to recount Vince, and how he sacrificed himself so that they could live on. This recourse of desperate thought made him think back to a certain time when he and Vince interacted, just a few months before Mark and Laura got wedded.

It was in Couriway Town, the family taking photos for certain locations in which Mark and Laura could get married. There weren't a lot of beautiful places like Ambrette Town, Couriway Town, or Cyllage City. Right now, Mark and Laura were adoring the waterfalls of the town, smiles on their faces.

"Now this is a beaut'!" Terrence smiled as he looked up at the waterfalls.

Cierra took another snap with her camera, getting the sunlight glistening over the waterfalls. "It truly is beautiful, isn't it?"

"This is all so amazing!" Laura happily exclaimed.

Mark put a hand to his hip. "Maybe we'd ought to find a place to stay here for the summer."

"I think we can make reservations, but I don't know for certain." Cierra said, taking another snap of the waterfalls. More accurately, this was her fifteenth.

"I think it's time we head back to the inn. I'm getting a little famished." Terrence said. He turned away, looking back towards everyone else. "You all ready?"

"I guess so." Cierra huffed. "I wanted to take more pictures of the rivers, but I guess tomorrow will be another day."

"You guys coming?"

Mark and Laura turned back towards Terrence, both smiling. "Sure." They said in unison.

Terrence looked around, realizing they were short one person. "Er, wait just a minute now…uh…" He looked to see their numbers seemed off, more precisely by one number.

"Dear?" Cierra questioned.

Terrence let out a testy groan of annoyance. "Where is Vince now?"

Cierra's eyes widened, realizing the flaw as well. "I didn't know Vince went off!"

"If I know him, I'd say he's trying to find wild Pokémon to battle against." The father turned towards Mark and Laura. "Can one of you go find him?"

"Sure. I'll go." Mark volunteered. "I'll meet you back at the inn soon. Make sure you don't start dinner without me!" He yelled as he walked off, waving back to Laura and the rest of the family.

About half an hour or so went on, and Mark kept on searching. He met various people, considered where he might be even, but Couriway Town had so many waterways. Where could Vince be? It was a tough debate, but no one could say for certain. Mark continued, not giving up.

"Vince! Where are ya? C'mon ya knucklehead!" Mark called out.

A splash sound came from not too far away.

"Damnit! Not again!"

Mark turned towards the yelling, recognizing the voice. 'Wait, I know that grumpy sound…' He began walking down the paved trail until he made it to the small bridge that crossed over towards the other side of the river. He looked over towards his right to see someone against the fence.

There he was, Vince, and he was having an exasperated expression on his face. Gengar was right by his side, leaning back and looking unamused.

"There he is." Mark said to himself.

Vince casted out the line once more, glaring at the crystal blue water. He looked determined as the smooth current dragged the lure farther away. "Come on, come on…" He huffed. "A Poliwhirl, or we'll even take a Poliwag. Just give us something Mr. River." He insisted.

A minute passed and nothing seemed to happen. Vince and Gengar were looking a little peeved, but then the line got a tug, and a splash was seen.

"It's mine!" Immediately, Vince got to his feet again, hoping this time for sure that the Pokémon doesn't get away. He pulled hard, tugging with all he had. Gengar stared at the line as something shot up from the water.

The line pulled out a Poliwag, and in midair, it let go of the line.

"YES!" Vince let out another one of his maniacal laughters before he pointed ahead. "Now, Gengar-!" Before he could point out a command, the Poliwag he fished out abruptly had its mouth glow blue, firing Bubble Beam. The fast Water-type attack was unleashed at Vince and Gengar's feet, making them both fall over and hit the grass.

The Poliwag went head first back into the river, another catch getting away.

Vince stirred back up, looking exasperated as the Poliwag had gotten away. "OH, COME ON! REALLY?!" He yelled. "That's like…ten times in a row!"

Gengar snickered at his master's failure.

"Shut up. Like you can do better." Vince retorted.

Mark slowly approached the irritated Trainer. "Hey, buddy." He called out.

"Eh?" His concentration broken, Vince looked up to see Mark in front of him. "Oh, it's you." He groaned. "What do you want now?"

"Your Mom and Dad asked for you to come back. It's almost dinnertime."

"I'm fine, geez." Vince ignored without a care.

Mark raised a brow. "Have you been fishing the whole time?"

Vince looked at him without much of a wince. "Yeah, so?"

"So…"

"So~?"

An odd silence feel between the two soon-to-be brothers. Mark was trying to insist that Vince must be tired and wanted to rest, but knowing Vince, he may not care until he got at least one Pokémon Battle in before coming back.

A question popped into Mark's mind. "Hey, Vince?"

"What? Can't you see that we're busy?" Vince gestured to the river and his Gengar, the latter looking like he was about to fall over out of boredom.

"Yeah, I can see…but, still."

"Eh?"

"Why don't you ever just quit? It's not like someone's paying you or bargaining your life on constant Pokémon Battles you know. Wouldn't it be easier to just take a break or someth-"

"No." His tone was so flat, almost like a Body Slam by a Snorlax that silenced the atmosphere around the duo. Mark stared at Vince as he rolled his eyes away, casting the lure once more.

"Vince…"

"If you had a Pokémon, you'd understand that you have a responsibility. Yes, I know I stink…and I don't mean just the fact that I haven't showered yet; no! I mean to say, do you know what makes a Pularis? Have you asked yourself that? Have you asked me that?"

Mark looked down at the ground. When he considered it, not once did he think of asking such a question. What meaning was there behind someone's name? Why was it so important?

"I'm not talented, I'm sorry to say, but being a Pularis, to me, means the one thing that I never let myself get drawn away from. You don't quit, no matter what. You can't quit, otherwise your work would've been for nothing. I may have sucked today in fishing, but I'll stay here all night if I have to find and beat a simple Poliwag or Poliwhirl. Hell, I can do this in my sleep." He looked back at Mark. "How did you fall in love with my sister? Why didn't you get loose and find other women? Simple, because you didn't quit. Love is…such a stupid and weird thing, but if it's what makes you motivated to not give up, by all means, go on ahead. Get it?"

"You mean…you don't quit…because you love trying?" Mark's eyes widened at the realization.

Vince shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean struggling is what I'm good at, right?"

"(Amen.)" Gengar sneered.

Another long silence fell onto Mark as he stared at Vince, resuming his hopes of finding a Water-type to quarrel with. What he said rolled around in his head, muddling over his comprehension. Vince wasn't usual one to talk so passively, nee talk at all about his family, considering how annoying everyone was to him, yet he held the name in great prospect, not willing to give up without so much as a fight.

Mark smiled, appreciating his words. "Alright, just make sure you come back before dinner then." Mark began walking off, leaving Vince and Gengar be.

As he left, a low grin came across Vince's face as he casted the line. "Yeah, whatever."

Crowhaw's sharp fangs and claws dug deeper, but the haunting man saw something completely off. Mark was grinning. For some reason, the man didn't seem to look as though he felt any sense of pain.

"What? What is wrong?!" The shocked ghost exasperated.

"You know, I almost forgot another thing that defines the good side of humanity for a sec." Mark's entire body began to illuminate a bright green aura. As nails and teeth were dug into his skin, said skin began to glow an alien green almost, his aura intensifying in a bright light. Crowhaw hissed at the bright pain flaring inside of his body. He screamed louder as the bright green light exploded, sending powerful beams all throughout the chamber. One of those beams happened to struck Crowhaw, sending him several feet away.

The ghost looked back, hollow-like eyes widening as he stared at the green aura flaring around Mark. He was grinning, disregarding how he was hunched over.

"You know a benefit from being dead? No pain." He said.

"But…but how?" Crowhaw looked shocked as Mark slowly began walking forward. His strides were full of confidence. "You should be crippled ribbons by now!"

"About your question from before…"

"Hm?"

"About ghosts? The answer is…yes, I do believe in ghosts. Ghost-type Pokémon exist, so why not believe in actual ghosts. Sure, actual ghosts are freaky and scare the crap out of ya, but here's a reality for ya, I ain't scared of haunted ghost, because I've been haunted all these years with this curse and my wife bearing the blood tainted by Giratina. So if anything, ghosts like you ought to be scared." He balled a fist, manifesting green aura with heavily compressed power within. "Because there's one thing you seemed to have forgotten. I, am a Pularis!"

He socked Crowhaw's side of the head, punching so hard it was like a wrecking ball. Crowhaw screeched as his body went to sunder into the earth, his bony face cracking up.

Mark stood over the damaged being, his fist glistening still. "You're strong alright, but because of that, I have to put you out of your misery. I am a father, and though I have never been the best role model, it's better late than never to set a good example for the Pularis name. Vince took it to a whole new level, and when he doesn't quit, we get power from him. That 'no quit' talk goes down to my son."

Crowhaw struggled to stand, grunting as pain flared.

"I have a lovely wife, a beautiful little girl, and a badass son with a woman of his own for inspiration. I cherish them all, and because of that, humanity has the one thing that inhumanity doesn't…" He raised his fist again. "Perseverance!"

He rammed his fist down again, hoping to get Crowhaw again. Crowhaw's eyes widened and he became black mist just in the nick of time. Mark's punch made green beams flare all throughout the cracks in the area, brightening the atmosphere.

Above, Crowhaw took shape, opening his bony and horrendous mouth. Black particles gathered and he hissed in scorn as the charged energy shot straight down like a satellite cannon, a compressed black beam making way down onto Mark.

However, Mark spread his legs and smirked. "Gotcha!" He put his hands together and let out a shout, unleashing a compressed beam of green energy. It was narrower, but it was like an arrow. The two energies collided, and Mark's magic met the middle, separating the dark beam into several smaller rays of darkness that showered down like arches on the sides, unable to hit him.

Crowhaw hissed like a snake as he had his mouth open and shot straight down onto Mark. Mark, however, reeled a fist back and green energy manifested. When Crowhaw was mere inches away, the Aura Mage bucked his hips and leaned up, scoring a vicious uppercut straight in the ghost's face. The face itself cracked, the earth rattling from the sheer intensity of the blow.

"This is the power of a Pularis!"

Mark followed through, sending Crowhaw skyward. The injured ghost hollered in pain as he could barely think straight. "Gah! Gaaaah! You twit! How are you even able to hit me?!" He retorted. "Did your magic properties alter to fit my caliber?! Impossible!" Out of anger and turmoil, Crowhaw brought his claws back, making yet another diagonal slash wave of pitch-black with red outlining expand outwards.

Mark swiped across horizontally, expanding a crescent very similar. Green and black crossed in the center, making a shockwave bellow. Whirlwinds of streaming green and black raged throughout the chamber.

The shockwaves dissipated, revealing both sides visibly wounded. Crowhaw panted, barely panting as his ghostly body was starting to give off a black mist. The mist around his body began to draw itself around him like a cyclone, snaking its way around his whole form. His eyes glowed a bright yellow, his mouth wide and yelling out loud enough to pierce sound itself.

"I have had enough of your kind!" He lunged down after Mark, shooting at such great speed. "You are a hypocrite, siding with the side of humanity that has its flaws! Perseverance? Everyone has that! Now, die!" Crowhaw stretched out his misty claws, ready to pierce.

As Crowhaw closed in, Mark pulled back a fist brimming with sheer aura. "It takes more than just a will to keep one on their feet!" Crowhaw and him nearly collided. "It's the fact that you know who and what you're fighting for that intensifies your will! Here's mine!"

A harsh crushing sound was heard, black spilling onto the ground. A sheer silence followed, with everything around the duo spinning. Both men were caught in a blur, unable to read anything more than their own individual expressions.

Crowhaw was frowning, as opposed to Mark half-grinning. Both saw nothing else, nor feel anything else. Another look revealed Crowhaw's sharp claws embodied in black mist piercing Mark's left shoulder right through the skin, bone, and all…yet Crowhaw's entire misty abdomen had a large hole with Mark's fist running through it. Despite the misty and ghastly form, Mark's aura made him tangible, thus mortally wounding Crowhaw.

Crowhaw's eyes shuddered, falling backwards as his claws pried out of Mark's shoulder. Mark grunted and fell to a knee as Crowhaw sunk to his back, the large hole big enough to fit a Quilladin.

Crowhaw gagged, unable to breath as his body continued to mist. He couldn't change form for some reason, his body confined to slowly rotting away. His bony-like face began to crack apart, his body beginning to become purple particles mixed in black vapor.

Mark had his head down, panting. He had one eye open, huffing as he looked to see Crowhaw slowly dying. "You let go of humanity because the dead sought to put you out of misery…" He thought of Nic and Vanessa. "We would've gone down that road to, but there are always those who'll end nightmares if one gives in. It's never-ending. As long as no one quits, we'll all end this inhumane crisis, and keep the balance checked."

"You will…suffer…for this…" Crowhaw's face broke apart. At that instant, his entire body cracked up, hands, claws, and tail. It all shattered like glass, becoming black vapor that wailed like ghosts that were sparkling purple. The particles dissipated, another one of the Rivolta members' lives ending.

Mark looked at the spot where Crowhaw perished, slowly staring back at his conical straw hat. The hat went rolling into the dark shadows, tumbling to a stop, remaining silent in the dark. Mark looked back down, his right arm clutching his left shoulder as he couldn't seem to move it. "Don't worry guys…" He grinned, despite his sluggish movements. "We can do this."

---

Elsewhere, Ivy's eyes suddenly widened. The mage could feel something wrong, and it didn't feel reassuring as her battle was still dragging on. "Crowhaw's Magic Power…it's gone." She muttered. She glanced in another direction. "Does this mean…?"

Laura punched forward, catching Ivy off guard and sending a blast of blue aura at her. Ivy caught wind and swiped her arm, summoning black roots to shield her yet again. The aura bounced off, and Ivy looked back to her with a smirk, seeing as how Laura was panting.

"My, your little family is a tenacious bunch now, aren't you?" She smirked. "You're more resilient than I thought. No wonder you've made it this far."

"Why I'm flattered." Laura said in a flat tone. "Why don't I show my appreciation." The mom brought her hands cloaked in blue aura together in one big clap and sent several diffused beams of blue at her opponent.

Ivy scoffed as her opponent showed her 'thanks'. "How thought, but I think I'll pass." She whipped up yet another barrier by summoning linked black roots from below. The diffused aura attack again met the shield, but this time, the shield budged and barely held itself together. As the barrier diffused itself, roots separating so that Ivy could catch a glimpse of her opponent.

For some reason, something was wrong, very wrong, and Laura could feel it. Their battle was dragging on for what felt like hours, yet her body felt like it was gonna keel over any minute now. She was barely standing, breathing in and out while her fatigue was continuing to pile on. 'What's happening? It's like a Pokémon's using Leech Life and sucking up my energy. I can't really be this exhausted. Right?'

Ivy had her hands to her sides, slowly raising them up. "What's wrong?" She asked factitiously. "Don't tell me that your age is getting the best of you. You should really be careful about your beauty, you look like you're getting wrinkles."

True to what Ivy implied, Laura's face had a couple wrinkles. While she had a couple already from her age before her reincarnation, she looked like she was in her mid-40s, and beginning to accelerate. Laura couldn't seem to fathom it, but she needed to find out what was happening. Fast.

Ivy raised her arm. "Dragon Root!"

A towering collage of roots sprouted behind, the end becoming the head of a large dragon with a serpentine body. The whole structure followed Ivy's arm and sped right over her, lunging after Laura with a menacing roar.

Once again, Ivy could feel her body lurch, nearly keeling over. 'This witch, what's my body doing? It's like everything was sapped out of me again!' She hurried with what energy her heels could muster and fell off to the side. The large draconic root hit the ground where she stood, diving snout first. Laura was fortunate to have dodged, but the shock from the attack made her tumble along the crusty ground, ascertaining more scrapes along her arms and body. On her stomach, she could barely get up.

"Damn you." She lowly growled.

"My, that looks like it hurts. Shall I just put you out of your misery?" Using her will, she raised the Dragon Root's head and pointed it at Laura's sprawled body. Laura's struggling to gain strength was admirable, but at the same time, pitiful. "Loved our talk, but now I'm bored. Sorry, girl. No hard feelings." She raised her arm, adjusting the root's trajectory. The root opened its mouth and hollered out as it lunged after Laura.

With one eye open, Laura was barely seeing straight. Her energy was continuing to deter from her body. The root closed in, time slowing down as the mom was barely holding herself together. She was processing too much in such a short expanse of time. She began to think of her husband, and then her children.

With them in her mind, both eyes widened with a gasp.

The Dragon Root collided with her, the ground shuddering and dust bellowing out, so powerful that the shockwaves reached out towards Ivy, the strawberry blonde's hair whisked through the raging storm of dust. She stared ahead, grinning ever so lightly as she watched her attack make its mark. The winds and dust began to quell after several minutes of struggling. Eventually, Ivy saw the results.

"Well, well…"

Ivy's eyes widened, hearing the voice. "What…?"

The dust cleared, revealing Laura standing back up on her feet. Her eyes were brimming with wrinkles, and she was grinning mischievously as she had her left arm stretched off to the side, her hand brimming in blue aura as it was wedged in the draconic read of the root. To be more accurate, whatever was left of the head.

"H-how did you…?"

"You know, it really isn't a nice thing to say that a lady is getting old. I'd really appreciate it if you'd rather not say that I'm not full of wrinkles." Laura said. "I can get as old as I want, or feel old, but you've seemed to have misplaced the fact that I'm a mother."

"So?" Ivy retorted.

"So, Hell or no Hell, I don't have to be nor feel beautiful as long as my babies make the world a beautiful place to live in." The Dragoon Root besides Laura suddenly began to glow from inside, a blue energy starting to transcend through the open roots. Blue beams continued to shoot outwards, magic flourishing.

Ivy's shock began to rise. 'It can't be. She's traveling her magic through the aura within the black roots themselves?' She continued to watch as the roots continued to shoot beams of blue all the wall down the long body, soon going behind her and into the earth. Ivy's head turned and she went wide-eyed as the aura went into the earth. 'No!'

The ground suddenly began to shudder, the tide of the battle turning in Laura's favor. "You seem to be fond of having roots come up from underneath. Let's see what happens when the ground doesn't settle!" Laura let out a long and loud shout, the ground itself quaking as her Magic Power traveled beneath the ground. Blue beams traveled up and blasted upwards, sending rock everywhere and Ivy could barely keep herself from moving constantly.

Blue beams shot everywhere, dicing up the earth and yet she tried to cover up. She tried to summon roots from beneath, but Laura's interference made it very uneasy to summon them. "D-damnit!"

As the beam in front of Ivy dissipated, Laura appeared in front, shocking Ivy as she also had a fist in blue aura reeled back. The proximity was drastically close, which was what caught Ivy with heavy dread. "How's this for old?!" The mother thrust her fist forward, quickly closing the gap between Ivy's abdomen and her. With a mighty blow, a beam of blue aura blazed across the battlefield, traveling in a straight path and smashing into the wall. The impact was so gruesome that the mom's attack left hand sizzling as she panted with deep breaths, staring at the open hole straight in Ivy's abdomen. Ivy stood remotely still, as I fixated on her gut blasted out of her. Blood ran down the side of the slender woman's lip, yet she looked remote.

Laura stepped back, grinning as she saw the distraught Ivy's state. "Speechless? Call what just happened a mother's instinct." She wasn't gonna let the Rivolta have their way, not after what they've done to Nic and Vanessa. Justice hit Ivy hard.

A long silence passed, but Ivy didn't fall backwards dead. Instead, she remained standing, grinning.

Laura frowned. "What?"

"Oh dear, it would seem that I have been impaled." Ivy grinned, her face beginning to grow maliciously dark. "Now you've made me mad." Yet despite how sultry her tone was, she was having a dark undertone. She was pissed.

"Wait…what just-you should be dead!" Laura exasperated.

"I could say the same for you. You don't look so good. What's the matter, it looks like something's taking a lot out of you…" Slowly, the hole in Ivy's gut began to repair itself. Laura paled as she watched black roots intertwine and mold together in Ivy's belly, the superficial layer becoming skin. Ivy's dark smirk turned more grotesque than before. "Oh right, that would be me."

Laura felt a sudden pulse in Magic Power. She went wide-eyed and felt horror skyrocket as the ground began to feel like a magnet. Everything around here was intensifying, especially the immense pressure that was escalating around Ivy. Said woman began to exert a dark green aura, her body beginning to morph.

Black roots began to rise out of the ground, snaking in and out of the earth constantly, diverging in all directions from Ivy as her lower half began to grow, becoming a collage of black roots that continued producing more and more roots. "Have you not figured it out yet? That my power does more than just produce these lovely plants around me?" Her shoulder blades began to grow, her attire's back tearing up as massive demonic hand-like wings spread forth, expanding out to give her a more 'angel of death' appeal.

Laura grunted, dropping to a knee as the ground shuddered as roots began to travel through the cavern underground rocks. "You…you mean…?" Her face ascertained several more wrinkles, and her fatigue intensified.

Ivy's smirk came back, her menacing Magic Power continuing to rise. "A slow learner I see. This is what my true power is. In order to produce these roots, I just need to take up nutrients from the earth, and anything that happens to be standing on it."

"What?! That can't be!" Laura exclaimed.

"As we speak, my power grows as I sap from the earth. It's a never-ending reservoir." Ivy narrowed her eyes, her luscious lips and injuries healing.

Laura clutched her fists, her eyes getting dreary. "So that's why you look so…"

"Beautiful?" Ivy finished. "Well, that's too kind of you. Well I guess it's cruel of me to admit, but I do have to thank the life around me for letting me 'borrow' some of their health benefits of course."

---

Underneath the bed of rock all throughout the hills and caverns, the roots went on, traveling and taking up nutrients. Any animals in the caverns that happened to be alive barely began to wither away as their life force was sapped by what unknowingly traveled beneath them.

Mariah began to falter, getting to a knee. "What…now?"

Kecleon hunched over, feeling very weary as her tongue out of her mouth. "Feeling dizzy…"

Magnezone and Gengar were unaffected as they were levitating off the ground, but as they engaged with one another, they could feel the Magic Power running through the earth. It was dark and draining away from their surroundings.

Outside, Erza began to falter, the energy from her body suddenly tiring out. She fell to a knee, grunting. "Grrr…what…what's happening…" Her skin began to pale. "My…Magic Power…"

Imaci fell to a knee, the energy from his body draining away as well. He grunted in agonizing pain. "Gnnngh!" He looked towards the mountainous hills with hostility. "Ivy, what are you doing?"

Vanessa looked down, seeing her skin paling, wrinkles coming across her body. "I…I can't…seem to lift my fingers…" She hesitantly said.

Imaci used a nearby rock slab as support, the bags beneath his eyes intensifying. He breathed in and out, barely keeping himself together. "Has she gone mad…?" He muttered. "Ivy, why?"

Vermilius's breathing was getting heavy. He seemed to be standing, but otherwise, he was alright. "Ivy…he has unleashed her strength."

Alpha didn't look interested, nee affected. He casually frowned, rolling his eyes away as the Magic Power's roots and nutrients affect didn't go anywhere near him. "It would appear so. Finally, Ivy's contributing a little usefulness."

All around the isle and quarry, the crabgrass withered away, reducing to twigs that were buried in sand. Small animals began to dry up, like vampires from beneath sucked them dry.

Nic sailed through the caverns, his eyes widening as he got a frightening signature of Magic Power yet again. "What's this?" He stopped in midair, maintaining his altitude and keeping away from the ground as he saw little snake-like roots waving through the earth. It unnerved him. "Those are…" He looked back ahead, his intuition carrying him off towards the unsound reservoir of leeching. "Mom!" He cried out.

Mark fell onto his side, his bleeding shoulder not helping as the iron and nutrients began to seep into the earth. Pain flared as he couldn't move. "Laur…a…" He muttered.

---

"You know, I am rather curious." Ivy said. "I am rather curious. Would you be able to stop me first, before every life begins to wither away?"

Laura could feel her energy deteriorate. "You…!"

Ivy whipped her hair around, flicking a lock out of place nonchalantly. "Well since you're going to be sapped dry by a living plant, I suppose I can tell you why I'm so interested in this spell." Ivy looked away, smirking as she could recount the number of lives she's taken all these years, taking away their years to add onto her own, all the while retaining lush beauty. "All I've ever wanted was to be beautiful. Flowers have luscious petals, but then there are those that are prettier and smell much nicer, a fabrication of opinion that proves how selfish the world thinks of beauty. I can't stand not being looked beneath another who may be beautiful. Vanity is important to a girl like me, so imagine what this Impure Underworld Spell can do?" Little by little, she made little plucking motions in the air. "One by one, I get to see all of their faces get turned inside out. Anyone but me will end up rotting away, becoming ugly corpses. And if they're too resilient, I have the honor myself to rob them of their beauty. It's a win-win!" She unleashed a malicious laugh, one that made Laura shudder out of anger.

"We won't let you." The mother growled.

"Oh? You care to try? Good luck when you're so weak. Every second, your body loses precious life force. How long would it take for you to shrivel up? I wonder about that." Again, her smirk turned demonic. "Let's test that theory out!" She extended her arms out, her hand-like wings responded. As she was ingrained to the earth, she couldn't fly, but the pointed ends of the claws or spikes of the wing extended, reaching out after Laura.

Laura gasped, hurrying out of the way. Intuition following, she mustered strength to get to a knee. She extended her arms forward, manifesting a blue aura shield to conceal herself. The spiked roots connected with the shield, piercing it. The translucent shield had eight of so spikes aligned, but were stuck.

"Don't think you're safe!" Laura warned. True to form, while the spikes were stuck, more spikes sprouted from the spikes themselves, curving and arching around the veil to attack Laura from the sides. Laura went wide-eyed, but was unable to respond as her energy had little reserves. The roots snapped at her, sending her flying backwards.

Laura slid along the ground on her back, thudding to a halt against a random boulder. Her back flared with pain, though it was dim due to her being half-dead. The shock on her face was priceless to Ivy, but she was far from satisfied.

"Extirpate!"

The ground began to shudder, Laura feeling another harsh spike in power. The energy lingering in the atmosphere had begun to multiply beneath, amounts staggering as Laura again couldn't move. Underneath and breaking through the earth, hundreds upon thousands of little roots rampaged, rising and breaking everything into nothing. Laura was sent flying, only to be swatted in midair by one of the many roots in the catastrophe. She slammed against the wall, falling towards the earth with a weak yelp of pain.

Ivy couldn't help but menacingly laugh at her opponent's blunder. "Oh come on, don't tell me you're down already. I was starting to enjoy myself there." She said.

Laura's body felt like a sack of pudding. She slumped back up against the stone wall, dreary in the eyes and blood running down her lips. Not only was her magic running low, but her body that was reincarnated was low on sufficiency. How much longer did she have? At this point, she was all wrinkles. 'Damn this hag.' She mentally cursed. 'I can't even move. How do I uproot this woman?!...wait-!' Something in her clicked. "Up…root…"

Ivy smirked. "Sorry, I can't hear you. Maybe this will clarify!" She swiped her arm, summoning roots that were in the rocky ceiling above. They broke through and came raining down in several dozen pairs.

"Showering Frenzy!"

They were all spiked and severely pointed at the ends. They came crashing down, but Laura used that torso strength possible and rolled off towards the side. The dozens of roots slammed into the ground, missing their targets. Laura rolled onto her stomach, panting as her body looked wrinkled than before.

Ivy put a hand to her hip. "Ah, tough old hag you are!" Again, she swiped her arm and summoned forth more black roots from the ground, which sent Laura flying once more, slamming her left shoulder into the ground. "You know, I was enjoying our little talk while it lasted, but I'm bored now. It really isn't fun talking to a sick old hag that really is stubborn than what she was supposed to be."

Laura spit out some blood, her insides feeling like mush. Barely sprawled and pushing up at the same time, she abruptly felt a crushing force around her waist. She was yanked up from the ground, suspended and coiled around the waist by a black root. The Aura Mage hung in the air as the black root drew itself closer towards Ivy, slowly drawing the helpless mother in front of Ivy.

As Laura was there in front of her face, Ivy put a finger to her chin. "Hmmm, now what to do with you? I could sap you dry right and now, or should I do what Vermilius does and torture by prodding spiked thorns into your limbs?" She pondered, albeit with fake innocence. "Or…should I rip off that ugly face? Yeah, that sounds like a fine way to start."

Laura was panting, blood dripping from her body. Every attack, nee every time she made a new root, some energy is sapped from the life around her. She was robbing beauty that wasn't her own. She was gaining power that wasn't rightfully hers.

"Mark!" Laura called out.

"Yeah?" The boyfriend appeared from behind the door, looking at his new wife's attire. She was in a serene midnight blue dress that had bright blue sparkles that stopped just above the knees. Her long blonde hair was straightened and she had a black purse. To say he was amazed would be an understatement.

"You look…beautiful." He said, albeit with hesitation.

Laura looked towards him with concern. "You no like?" She asked.

"What? N-no! No, I love it, it suites you!" He told her in a very flustered manner. "It's just, I haven't seen you wear something so extravagant in…forever."

Laura looked down at him. "You clean up nicely yourself." Taking note of his attire, Mark had tan pants and nice dress shoes. He had a white dress shirt beneath a red and green striped vest and tie beneath a tan coat. He looked handsome to say the least, especially given the fact that he's casually loose with whatever he wears. For their third date, at the age of 16, he didn't look too shabby. "You look very handsome." She commented with a smile.

Mark smiled proudly. "Right, thank you."

"Yo."

An untimely entrance of Vince entering the four-star hotel made Mark and Laura turn towards them, shock on their faces. While Laura was looking a little laid back, Mark was more than a little spooked.

"Vince?!" Mark exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

Vince raised a brow, as though the answer seemed obvious. "What do you mean? This is a suite. My room's on the other side. What are you so jacked up about? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Vince." Laura narrowed her eyes, a threatening inquiry on the rise.

Vince rolled his eyes, holding up Haunter's Poke Ball. "Relax, right here. Geez, no need to get a heart attack on me." He took notice the two dressing up, their attires suiting them fairly well. "Say, you guys going somewhere?"

"Yeah, while Terrence and Cierra are out for the night, Laura and I are gonna go see what else the town has to offer." Mark said.

Vince nodded slowly, though he seemed more tired than willing to care. "Cool." He said flat.

Laura took a step closer towards her brother. "Hey, Vince." She smiled graciously, twirling around in her dress. "So, what do you think?"

Vince shrugged with a half-grin. "Looking good, sis." He commented.

Mark raised a brow. "Uh…pardon?"

"Hm?"

Mark took a step towards Vince, looking seemingly offended. "What do you mean by 'Looking good, sis'? Are you implying that she's just…plain?" Mark asked.

"What are you talking about?" Vince raised a brow. "You expect me to say anything else?"

"Well I was expecting you to say something a little more flattering towards a woman." Mark said. "Look at your sister, she's perhaps the most beautiful thing in the world!"

Laura looked away, flattered. "M-Mark." She scolded.

"She's your sister, right? I mean, come on, give her a nicer thing to say why don't ya?"

Vince crossed his arms, giving a despondent stare that was as cold as ice at Mark. The younger man seemed a little weary, especially given he's still weary around the punkish older brother. Vince didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"…you know, you're being a little crap-ass right now." Vince said. "You're a shallow nimrod."

"W-what?!" Mark exclaimed.

"Vince!" Laura scolded.

"Hang on, sis, I ain't done." Vince retorted. He looked back at Mark with a stink eye. "You really wanna just stand there admiring someone based off their looks? Look here, I really don't care why or how my sis sees something in you, but all you've been doing was being a kiss-up since you started dating. Left and right, about how she's 'pretty' or 'beautiful'. We get it. It's annoying! We KNOW she's a very beautiful young woman, but rather than milk the Miltank, why not do us a favor and rather get to know my sis rather than throw cheap comments that can throw ANY woman off her feet, otherwise…" He shot a hostile glare at him. "I can just drive Laura back home and leave you here to saunter with another chick."

Mark and Laura stared in shock at Vince's words. While Laura didn't mind being called beautiful by her boyfriend, she would admit that for once that she was asked a question or engaged in more talk with Mark. They've been dating for about a month now, but what Vince said did bring up some long-run terminology.

"Vince…" Mark muttered.

"Actions speak louder than words, pal. Keep that in mind." Vince began walking away lethargically, leading himself towards his suite. "Beauty is only skin deep. Whether or not they can make something out of themselves is what really matters. Take it from me and Haunter. Some people say that Ghost-type is ugly, but we'd rather not be taken lightly."

With that, the door slammed shut, leaving Mark and Laura in their own suite. It took Vince a lot of convincing by his younger sister to pool some money for a hotel for an out of town date with Mark, yet while he did show scorn, it was for very good reasons. Mark looked at Laura, a worried look on his face.

"Uh…" He tried to think of something to say. "Hey, y-you okay?" He asked.

Laura smiled at him. "Don't worry about Vince. He wouldn't know a relationship even if it hit him in the head…" She looked away, eyes halfway open. "Though he is right for once."

Mark rubbed the back of his head, biting his lip. He seemed unable to say anything else, especially after Vince's little intrusion.

"L-Laura, I…"

Laura shook her head, grinning. "It's okay, Mark." She looked back at him, grinning. "But every once in a while, would you rather say something that defines me that is really more…us?"

Mark grinned. "Y-yeah. I'll try." He looked a little flustered. "You…" He caught himself about to throw nother comment on how she was beautiful. Another cliché move sadly. Laura's face began to fall. "…care to get first pick at the restaurant?"

Laura's face brightened up. "I think I'd like that."

On the other side of the door, sitting back in a chair, Vince's frown turned into a grin.

Laura remained still, her weak form suspended as the hand-like wings of death around Ivy curling forward, the pointed root spikes sharpening to pierce her face. A looked of anticipation was on Ivy's face, it was like a child waiting to open a present on Christmas morning.

"Now…DIE! UGLY BITCH FROM HELL!"

The eight prolonged spikes closed in on her face, but at the last second, Laura's hands gripped four each, suppressing her. The sudden halt of the spikes was a shock, especially to Ivy, who was now incapacitated.

"You…really are a shallow bitch. You know that?" Laura muttered, a grin on her face.

"What?" Ivy asked. "You shouldn't be moving! You should have no nutrients in your system! What are you still doing alive, ugly?!" She yelled.

A dark shadow was over her eyes, Laura barely holding herself together. She raised her head, showing an intense fire. Her glare was intense, starting Ivy. "I'll lose my beauty when I get old, I used to tell myself that very few times back in my youth. I wasn't all that like you are. I probably wasn't the prettiest, nor did I have the caboose like you and Nic's woman has…but yeah is only in the eye of the beholder."

Ivy's teeth gritted. "What are you talking about now?"

"You may think you are the beautiful one, but you're nothing but dead plants under that skin. The reality is that you're the ugliest freak of nature there is." Laura's head lowered. "But I was the same. I've been ugly all this time. I was ugly to my two beautiful babies. They're the real beauty in the family, and in essence too." Her hold on the roots began to tighten, her strength evident. "I don't care about being ugly, because beauty doesn't last forever. I don't take glory nor other's vanity to keep myself forever young. This is where I was you may be a pretty face, but if all you care about is that and Hell, then you're no angel in the face of Satan!" Retaliating, Laura opened her mouth and unleashed a blast of blue aura rather than use her hands. The attack struck Ivy dead in the face, enveloping her in a blue explosion. The plant woman screeched out as she leaned back in her spot, while Laura leaped back, using her revived strength to hold up as best as she could.

The smoke cleared, Ivy looking angry. "You…!" She swiped her arm up, summon linear columns of black roots that bent down after Laura. They closed in, but Laura swiped her arm, unleashing a crescent at the roots. Cutting straight into them. The roots began falling, but the mom ran fast enough to evade the falling roots that picked up dust, obscuring Ivy's point of vision.

"Damnit." Ivy scowled. She turned left and right. "Where-?!"

A harsh hold was stuck onto her back, her eyes widening when a bright blue ring encompassed her waist. Looking shocked and recognizing the aura, she looked behind, dust clearing to reveal Laura a few feet away, her hands attached to a tight band of blue aura.

"What are you…?!"

Laura smirked. "I wondered about something." She thought back to earlier when she used her magic. "When you use your magic, you always have to stay still. You have to ingrain your feet to use the nutrients around you in order to attack or defend, no matter how little. And when you became that form, your body became one giant root. Your power from all around seeps to your bottom half and through you. Now that makes me wonder…what would happen if I uprooted you?"

Ivy's eyes widened. "You wouldn't dare." She gasped.

"Oh really? Watch me!" Laura began to pull, squeezing her form aura around Ivy's black, tree-like waist. She was binding and pulling, and Ivy was feeling very harsh pain as her blind spot was getting hit.

The plant woman looked back towards the mom. "Not if I can have a say!" Using her magic and nutrient-stealing maneuvers, she made a medium-sized vine that arose behind her with a bulbous end. Said end had near-fifty little spikes. It was like a Needle Arm, only with a vine or tentacle. "Prickling Shot!"

The root lunged after Laura as she was standing still, unable to move properly. She stood her ground, brutally taking serious pain as the fifty long and narrow spikes pierced her stomach, blood spilling behind her spine and back. The spikes prodded out from the other side, getting all the way through. The mom grunted, pain flaring immensely from the abrupt attack. She grunted, though half-dead and unable to feel pain – to a degree – she nearly fell over.

"I ain't letting you steal my beauty I worked so hard to achieve. This spell is going through, and I intend to make Hell deem me the most beautiful!" Ivy shouted.

"Oh yeah-gngh! We we'll see about that!"

It became a tug-o-war battle, a battle of strength of two women. Whoever came out on top would be the prominent. She who was of beauty inside, or beauty outside. As the spikes in Laura lengthened, bleeding her out, Ivy was feeling her constriction and pull equally as painful. Both could feel their Magic Power drain as their individual life forces were sucked out of the other. Laura's body was getting to a knee, and yet the hold was still firm and pulling hard. Ivy was struggling as well, as her form and power was doing all that it could to keep itself sustained.

Ivy shouted as she dug deeper, pushing Laura back a couple of feet while blood covered her entire chin. "Who's the ugliest now, bitch?!" She cried out.

Laura kept an eye open, holding in with what willpower she had left. "…gnnnnngh! You are!"

Ivy's eyes widened. "W-wait-!"

Laura screamed with all her might, the mom fighting through the pain as she remembered what and who she was fighting for. 'Honey! Nic! Vanessa! My babies…your mommy isn't the most beautiful, but she'll make it where it counts!' She pulled with the great Pularis strength she had from beating up Nic. With every inch, cracking and breaking apart was Ivy's waist. Which was starting to tear Ivy up.

"S-STOP! STOOOP~!" Ivy shrieked.

With one final shout, Laura yanked with every fiber of her reincarnated being. She tore Ivy's upper body clean off, the rooted woman gaping her mouth as the pain stopped for just a brief moment. Time slowed down as Ivy went soaring overhead, off to the side, while the roots all around began to stop moving. The roots all throughout the caverns and hills suddenly stopped moving, ceasing their expansion. The root attached to Laura had also stopped moving, going limp as the mother fell onto her back, her worn-out and wrinkled frame dimming.

At the same time, both women fell to the ground, Ivy onto her stomach and Laura onto her back. They were both in pain, yet as Laura was more stiff and still, Ivy was squirming in place, yelling out in constant pain as her waist down was extirpated from the earth.

"GAAAHH!" She shrieked, wiggling around like a worm. Her roots that were inside her body continued to wiggle and shrieked.

Laura rolled to her side, feeling the blood loss get to her. Though lightheaded, the mom yanked the spiked root out of her gut, dark red and black covering her entire waist and belly. She breathed in and out, trying to keep herself under control.

Ivy was clawing against the ground, slowly and weakly getting towards Laura. As she clawed slowly foot by foot, her strawberry blonde hair began to lighten, almost to where it was a withering gray. Her beautiful and mature upper body figure was gaining wrinkles. "W-what's happening?" She looked down at her arm, seeing her supple skin turning pale and severely wrinkling. "No…no!" She went wide-eyed as she looked back, her wings beginning to rot away. "No, no, no, no! NO!" She coughed up dust in place of dust, her body starting to break down. "My…my roots are strong enough to resist fire or metal! HOW?!"

Laura rolled onto her stomach, witnessing Ivy's power slowly dying. "You know, pretty flowers grow in lush gardens…" She paused, taking a breath. "…you even a single flower blooming in a wasteland is proof enough that one is capable of living in a world of ugliness."

"Nonsense…" Ivy's body began to pale to where it was turning gray, looking like a very old woman. She reached out after Laura helplessly, her vision going dark. "I…was meant…for beauty…alone…" She said her final words before her entire body turned black, black as the roots she's made. She began to crumble apart, like old dirt and twigs, reducing to black ash that sat there, lifeless as a pile of twigs.

Meanwhile, Laura stared at Ivy's remains dissipating. She turned to see the trunk-like body crumbling away. The black roots that spread all throughout the tunnels and area had begun to shrink and wither up like bad raisins. The atmosphere began to liven up, the energy returning to the earth.

---

The wrinkles on Erza's body began to fade away, her pale skin returning color. She found the strength to stand again. Looking down, she saw that her hands and Magic Power flourished with life again. "My energy is back." She gasped. "It's like it came back in one go. But, what could've…?"

Saboth stood up straight, looking down at his Demon Karbia once more. "Ivy…have you fallen?"

Imaci found the strength to stand, staring at Vanessa yet again. 'This can't be. Ivy is…'

Vanessa stood back up, staring at Imaci with teal around her replenished hands yet again. "What was that?"

Mariah, Kecleon, Mark, and everyone else could feel their skin color return, their energy reviving once more. Though weakened by their enemies, everyone was starting to get back up, Magic power and skin restoring back to what they were meant to be.

As he sailed through the tunnels, Nic looked down as the black roots shriveled up and crumbled away, leaving him to blink. "This energy…it's gone." He looked back ahead, staring at the tunnel that seemed to be taking turns left and right like no tomorrow. "…Mom…"

---

Laura panted as she laid on her side, groaning as she lost a lot of strength. Her skin and wrinkles returned to normal, the few wrinkles from before even freshening up. It was like a small fraction of youth came back to her…just a little. She smiled happily as she laid there, glad to have helped everyone. "Funny…now I really feel old." She chuckled low.

---

Vermilius looked off towards the side, into the darkness and away from the circle. His eyes were wide. "Crowhaw, and now Ivy." He muttered. "They…"

Alpha frowned and closed his eyes, looking away. "Yes, it would appear so." A long pause came from his throat, the only thing that gave off any sound being the wailing and low howling off the deadly letters of the near-black colored spell. "Oh well, they've outlived their usefulness to me. There is still five left that are reserved to put these tenacious cockroaches in the dirt." He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the impending very short hours left.

Outside, the red moon started waning higher into the sky.

"I can't wait." Alpha smirked.

---

And here is the newest chapter! The first one of March at that. I want to apologize for this chapter taking so~ long to make, as my pacing for chapters dwindled down like crazy! This one took me 5 days to write, which is late in my standards. In order to make this chapter on time, I had to double my quota the last 2 days, meaning I had to write 12K in under 2 days. I'm also sorry for this chapter being over a monstrous 20K; I really want to finish this arc in the minimal chapters possible, so I'm stuffing as much as I can into these chapters. I hope you're all not bothered.

Well anyways, now 3 of the Rivolta has been defeated. That leaves Mariah, Gengar, Imaci, Saboth, Vermilius, and Alpha left. And the hours shortening doesn't help either for the guys. At least I got the parents' fights over with.

What did you guys think of Crowhaw and Ivy? Okay bad guys? Did they make your skin crawl?

As always, comment, favorite, and share your thoughts in a (long and very detailed) review. Thanks guys, you are all the best! :)