The K-5, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry screamed while falling down from the sky. But Marisa quickly managed to generate winds around her feet to float and saved her friends as she landed them down safely on the ground through the trees.
"Is everyone okay?" Ariana asked as she and the others got up from the ground.
"I feel like falling off hard from the Empire State Building." Kirana replied with a groan.
"I'm good." Camilla said, holding a thumb-up in the air.
The K-5, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry looked around to find themselves standing in a gigantic forest filled with giant, hostile thorn-covered vines and a thick green fog overcasting the sky.
"Whoa." Ezra said, in amazement.
"Uh, where are we?" Taissa asked.
"Silent Forest." Marisa responded. "We must move if we're going to take Taissa to the Pyramid Temple."
"And you really expect us to walk past this spooky wood?" Camilla asked as she placed her hands on her hips.
"It's the only way for us to get back to our home dimension." Talia pointed out.
"Talia's right, Camilla." Ariana said. "We have to move forward."
"Marisa, lead the way." Kirana said to Marisa.
Marisa walked forward as the K-5, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry followed her from behind.
"I hope there won't be any dangers ahead." Harry said.
"We'll be ready for them, if we are cautious." Alatar said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the K-5, Marisa, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry had walked deeper into the forest, the entire area was starting to get darker that only made Taissa stop walking.
"Taissa, are you okay?" Camilla asked as she turned around to see Taissa standing behind her in fear.
"This place...it's...we shouldn't be here." Taissa replied in fear.
"Don't worry, Taissa. I'll carry you." Camilla said with a soft smile.
Camilla picked Taissa up in her arms before following the others. Taissa started to get scared that made her hug the red mage kunoichi, making Camilla pat the child on the back.
"Look, are you sure we can't camp here for the night, Marisa?" Kirana asked.
"No. This forest is the home of wandering spirits." Marisa answered. "We must continue to avoid trouble. The fastest way to get to the Pyramid Temple is through the Hightail Falls."
"I have to agree with her, Kirana." Ezra said. "It doesn't look good enough to camp here."
Suddenly, the sound of screeching crows made the mages look up at them as the crows started flying out of the trees. Ariana then heard a familiar whispered cry that snapped her head around.
"Uh, guys, what's that sound?" Ariana asked in alarm.
Everyone directed their attention to a floating ball of purplish blue light with flame shaped heads, glowing yellow eyes, and oval shaped bodies between two large trees. The creature was glowing gently and calling for the nine mages in its pitched noise and slight arm movement.
"What's that?" Kirana asked.
"A will o' the wisp." Taissa said in awe as she got off from Camilla arms. "My mother told me that the will o' the wisps can lead you to your fate."
"Like in Brave?" Ezra asked. "The movie?"
"What is this thing you call a movie?" Alatar asked.
"Is it a magic device?" Harry asked.
"Uh, it's a long story and it's something like that." Ezra chuckled.
Taissa moved closer and closer to study the magical creature. She reached her hand out with curiosity, but the wisp disappeared in a pitched whisper. Taissa, Marisa, Harry, Alatar, and the K-5 looked around to see another wisp appear with a small noise followed by a trail of other wisps as if they were leading the mages deeper into the forest.
"Come on, guys." Taissa whispered to the K-5 and her friends.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Talia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We used to have will o' the wisps back in her dimension." Camilla said. "I remember meeting a Phantamp when I was five years old back in Japan. Whenever path they lead us, they must face it."
Camilla and Taissa turned back to the wisps as they slowly started walking towards the trail of wisps. Marisa, Alatar, Harry, Kirana, Ariana, Talia, and Ezra exchanged looks before rushing after two mages. The forest grew denser and thicker while the trees got older when nine mages followed the wisps. The last of the wisp disappeared that gave the K-5, Marisa, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry the sight of a dark, morose mountain few miles in front of them.
"Why would the wisps lead us here?" Ariana asked in confusion.
"I don't know, but I don't wanna spend more time in the forest anymore than you guys do." Kirana said. "So, let's keep moving."
Kirana walked forward to the mysterious mountain as Ariana, Camilla, Talia, Marisa, Taissa, and Harry followed her from behind. Ezra heard faint whispering and looked around with a curious face before he continued with the others, that move caused Alatar to look at Ezra with a confused face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night, the mages jumped onto the mysterious mountain and climbed their way up into a cave. They walked through the cave that was covered in golden yellow spider webs.
"Okay, this is totally creepy." Talia said with an uncomfortable face as she was poking a golden yellow web with her finger.
"I detect the presence of evil coming deep within these giant spider webs." Taissa said with narrow eyes.
"That would explain the creepy feeling." Harry said.
"Everyone, get ready." Marisa said firmly.
The K-5, Marisa, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry rushed forward as they carefully moved out of the hole to see voluminous giant blue crystals and a female jellyfish-like spirit standing on one giant crystal. She has a pear-shaped figure with red skin, dark grey eyes and a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell head with tentacles drooping from the sides. She wore a sleeveless black leotard with a skull emblem on both sides of her hips. She also wore black bangles on both wrists and gold bangles on both her wrists and ankles.
"Greetings, fellow mages." The female spirit spoke.
"Meduza?" Marisa asked in shock.
"Oh dear!" Meduza said with a giggle. "Eight mages brought the child of the Demon King in my domain? I do sense dangerous power within the child. Bestow her to me and I may let you all live."
"Not gonna happen, jellyfreak." Kirana snapped.
"Kirana, wait!" Ezra warned, but it was too late.
Kirana rushed forward to attack Meduza with her psychic energy constructed twin tessen, but Meduza swiftly grabbed the blue mage kunoichi with her two tentacles and lifted her to fry Kirana with surges of electricity before tossing her away. Ezra and Alatar went to her aid with their healing magic. Marisa jumped in the air and raised her arms in the air to attack Meduza with twin tornadoes rising from the ground. Ariana and Camilla summoned their magic in alert while Talia held Taissa and Harry tight in her arms. Meduza teleported away from Marisa and grabbed Ariana with her tentacle to glue the purple mage kunoichi onto the crystal with sticky red goo. Meduza then grabbed Camilla with her tentacle and trapped her in a sticky red goo onto the crystal next to Ariana. Talia placed Taissa and Harry down and created a bright orange orb between her hands to release multiple orange energy beams to attack Meduza from different direction. But Meduza moved out of the way and trapped Talia in a sticky red goo onto the crystal between Camilla and Ariana. As Meduza teleported away from the captured mages and stood in front of Taissa and Harry with a sinister grin, Marisa suddenly rose behind Meduza and summoned a large pillar of lightning to electrocute the jellyfish-like spirit from beneath with Alatar to use his magic to help her out that allowed Kirana to grab Taissa in her arms and Ezra to grab Harry's hand before leaping away. Meduza turned around and began whipping her tentacles at the weather mage and the blue cat mage creature, who was dodging with remarkable speed. Kirana and Ezra freed their captive sisters from the goo and they landed on the ground. They looked up to see Meduza finally striking Marisa with fist-shaped tentacles that made the weather mage fall to the ground.
"Marisa!" Alatar cried out in worry as he went over to his friend and held her in his arms.
The K-5 ran over to help Marisa and Alatar. Before Meduza could finish off the K-5, Marisa, and Alatar, a large black vortex was formed right in front of the mages and Taissa slowly emerged from it that made Meduza halt from her position.
"I won't let anyone from the likes of you hurt my friends!" Taissa cried with an angry face.
Taissa unloaded a machine-gun barrage of dark telekinetic bolts at Meduza. The jellyfish spirit was trying to fly past the bolts, but she ended up getting knocked out cold to the crystals with high damage.
"Whoa." Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, Ezra, and Harry breathed in awe.
"Thank you, Taissa." Marisa said with a smile. "Your mother will be very proud of you."
Taissa's eyes went wide and delivered her mage friends with a soft smile. Ezra suddenly looked over to the wall and walked over to press his hands on a button that revealed a grey crystal shard. With a proud smile, Ezra picked up the crystal shard in his hand and went to the team.
"How did you find it?" Harry asked.
"My powers detected something a while back." Ezra replied as he gave the shard to Alatar before the blue cat mage creature put the shard in his bag. "I guess the wisps lead my fate to it."
"Nice job, Ezra." Alatar said with a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the K-5, Marisa, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry made their way out of Meduza's domain, they took shelter in another cave to make camp. Marisa was looking outside at the weather with no use of her magic as the K-5, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry gathered together around the campfire.
"I know Harry will get to his powers." Talia said as she looked at Harry, who was asleep.
"He will. He just needs a little bit of time." Ezra added.
"You know, for a daughter of the Demon King, Taissa isn't so bad." Ariana commented as she looked at the sleeping Taissa.
"Yeah, that little girl got more gut and power than all of us put together." Camilla said. "Well, let's get some sleep."
"Way ahead of you, sis." Talia agreed.
Ariana, Talia, Ezra, and Camilla yawned as they fell asleep to the ground. Kirana looked at her four sleeping siblings with a smile and turned her head to Marisa, who was sitting next to her.
"Marisa, thank you for everything." Kirana said.
"And I like to thank you, Kirana ." Marisa said with a smile.
"Me? For what?" Kirana asked.
"Your courage and trust." Marisa replied. She let out a soft yawn. "Get some sleep."
Kirana nodded her head with a smile as she and Marisa lied down to get some sleep.
Few hours later, the campfire went out that only woke Ezra up from his sleep. He opened his eyes and gasped at the view outside to see New York City.
"What?" Ezra said. "How am I home?"
Suddenly, the entire cave and the city buildings began to turn into ash.
"Ezra!"
Ezra looked over at a rooftop and saw Norbit with Vee hugging him in fear.
"Norbit?" Ezra said.
"Ezra!" Vee yelled.
"Vee?!" Ezra said as he ran to the edge.
The entire rooftop began to turn to ash and a cloud of black smoke began to surround them, making them hard to see.
"NO!" Ezra cried.
"EZRA, HELP!" Vee screamed.
Ezra ran over to help, but a cloud of black smoke surrounded him and he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and fell into a bottomless pit of darkness. That made Kirana snap awake and sit up. She rubbed her eyes and saw a familiar silhouette, who turned around to reveal himself as Slade!
"Everyone, wake up! Get up now!" Kirana shouted as she was shaking her siblings and her friends.
"What's wrong?" Camilla asked as she and her two younger sisters woke up from their sleep.
"It's Slade!" Kirana replied.
The K-5 turned around to find Slade gone from their sight. They sped out of the cave and looked up to see Slade floating above them. Slade punched his fist to the K-5, who quickly moved out of the way. Slade stood up and looked at the four mages with a dark smile.
"Such spirit." Slade commented. "Unlike your brother."
Suddenly, Laquinn appeared out of nowhere and held a knocked out Ezra in her arms.
"Ezra!" Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, and Talia cried out in worry.
"He's mine!" Talia shouted.
As Talia charged forward towards Slade, they fought each other briefly until the Demon King built up his demonic magic between his hands and released a large, powerfully destructive red laser-like beam that went straight into orange mage kunoichi's chest in a massive explosion. Kirana, Ariana, and Camilla gasped wide eyes as they watched their youngest sister fall off the cliff.
"Talia!" Camilla screamed.
With a raging scream, Camilla rushed forward to strike Slade with her psychic energy magic. But Slade unleashed many fierce red flames in the form of elongated circles at the red mage kunoichi that knocked her off the cliff. Ariana looked at Slade with a glare and rushed forward to attack the Demon King, but she released a large, bullet-like stream of fire towards the purple mage kunoichi that caused her to fall between Talia and Camilla.
"No mage can defeat the wrath of the Demon King." Slade said.
Laquinn set Ezra on the ground next to his deceased sisters and revealed a stab wound on his stomach area. Kirana widened her eyes in shock as she saw the lifeless form of her younger siblings.
"Talia! Camilla! Ariana! Ezra!" Kirana screamed as she quickly ran over to her deceased siblings. "NOOOOOOOO!"
Kirana was staring at her younger sisters as she could feel tears filling from her eyes and rolling down on her cheeks. She picked up Ezra's body in her arms and wept into his shoulder. Her screams echoed through the mountain in rage as she unknowingly started to feel a change within her.
Suddenly, a blazing blue spade-shaped emblem appeared underneath Kirana as a swirling column of blue energy rushed up around the blue mage kunoichi and her gypsy clothing was changed into a skintight black bodysuit that has light blue sleeves with attached gloves and black and blue striped heels connected to her bodysuit. Bright blue energy began surging around Kirana's body that only made Slade smile wider.
"Besides my daughter, I can sense the great potential inside of you, Kirana." Slade said. "And I will corrupt for you for it!"
Kirana set Ezra down and stood up on her feet to glare at Slade as she slowly constructed her twin tessen with her psychic energy magic and gripped them in deep anger. With an enraged yell, Kirana charged forward to attack Slade with her twin tessen as she began swinging them at him with rage. Slade unleashed several fiery, curved red beams towards Kirana, who was able to avoid them with her twin tessen in remarkable speed. Kirana tried to attack Slade as best as she can with her weapon until Slade managed to extend his hands upwards and conjured a large ball of fire to lob it at the blue mage kunoichi that made her fall near Ariana. Kirana looked back at Slade with a dead glare.
"You may unlock your true power, but I grow stronger." Slade said. "You pose no threat against me, witch."
With that, Slade began to rush towards Kirana in a flash of white light.
"Kirana! Kirana, wake up!"
Kirana opened her eyes with a sharp gasp when she heard the sound of Camilla's voice calling her name and looked up at her siblings and friends in confusion.
"Camilla! Ariana! Talia! Ezra! You're okay!" Kirana cried as she lunged forward and hugged her siblings tightly. "Wait a minute. Was it all a dream?"
"You were controlled by my father's magic." Taissa explained.
"We all had the same dream. But when Slade destroyed us, we just woke up." Ariana added.
"Ezra was under the control of Laquinn's magic." Alatar said.
"And when Alatar used his magic, he woke Ezra up." Harry added.
"But why?" Talia questioned.
"I don't know. I thought you were all gone." Kirana responded with a solemn look. "But I do know that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants."
"So will Laquinn." Ezra added. "But we can't let them control or mess with us."
"Be wary, mages. We're not out of danger yet. We must approach the Hightail Falls until we can make to the Pyramid Temple." Marisa spoke.
Kirana stood up on her feet as she and her siblings started walking behind Marisa, Taissa, Alatar, and Harry to their destination.