Next Chapter and in Ayaka's point of view to mix some charaters up!

Please review and leave feedback!

Chapter 8- Hunt Through The Woods

Ayaka POV

Ayaka walked through the forest silently, glancing around nervously ashs she walked. Maybe it was just her, but the shadows cast by the larger trees gave her a horrible ominous feeling.

"Are you alright?" She looked up to meet Ariene's dark violet blue eyes, her eyes were curious with a hint of concern in them.

Ayaka blushed, uncertain. She didn't know how it played out like this, but after hours of trying to make a game plan to solve the singularity with Rin and Issie, Roman contacted Issie and told her that there was a powerful source of magic in the woods and that it could be the source of the singularity. With that, the three or rather, Issie and Rin had quickly decided to go to the woods the next morning.

Once they had gotten to the woods, they immediately decided to split into teams. Jeanne had suggested that they team up into groups of threes but since there was an odd number of them, there would be a pair of two. Jeanne had also suggested that they pair up into random groups instead of keeping with their own to build trust.

In the end, the groups were Cleo, Issie and Arthur, who went to the east of the woods. Boudica, Atalanta and Gawain went to the west. Jeanne and Siegfried went to the south. That just left Ayaka's group, she was paired with Rin and Ariene and they were heading north, extremely deep into the woods.

"I'm fine." Ayaka finally said softly, pulling herself out of her own mind. There was nothing to be afraid of.

"Hey Ariene." Both Ayaka and Ariene turned to look at Rin, who was trailing a few steps behind them, her arms crossed over her chest. "Gawain and Arthur told us about your legend."

Ariene paused and Ayaka quickly turned to look at the servant. Her eyes had become guarded and there was even a hint of coldness in her eyes. "I expected them to. I really did."

Ayaka couldn't help but feel guilt at Ariene's look, she swore that she heard truth in her statement but maybe a part of Ariene had hoped that they wouldn't? "I'm sorry if it offends you, Ariene."

She knew how it felt to want to keep something hidden. She had always wanted to keep her life hidden away from the world and at times, she had even wanted to hide her physical self. Before she had summoned Arthur, she had been completely content to live a quiet life by herself.

"Did you want to know something specifically?" Ariene asked, looking over at Rin, who had sped up her steps to fall in next to them.

Ayaka shared a glance with Rin, silently begging her to not annoy Ariene with her questions. This was a servant who wasn't really allied with them, there was no need to upset her for no reason.

"Are you sure it's okay that Issie and Cleo are together?" Rin asked, Ayaka looked at stunned. She was almost one hundred percent positive Rin wasn't planning on asking that. Had she changed her question for her sake? When Ayaka looked at Ariene, even she looked stunned.

Apparently she had been a bit too distracted by the question because a second later, Ayaka's foot caught on the root of a tree and she started to fall. She remembered letting an embarrassing loud squeak as she felt gravity take effect; even though she was just walking, she knew the fall would at least make her sore; the path they had been walking alongside was dry and mostly made of coarse sand and pebbles. She'd be surprised if she didn't come out of this without any scrapes.

Before Ayaka hit the ground, an arm reached out and Ayaka felt herself jolt to a halt. She blinked open her eyes and saw her face a good distance from the ground and her body was almost in a perfect diagonal angle.

"What are you doing?" Ariene asked, her fingers tightening on the back of Ayaka's shirt as she pulled her back up into a standing position.

"Sorry." Ayaka said, blushing.

"No problem." Ariene sighed, her eyes scanned the surrounding trees, watchful as she saw squirrels skitter across the floor and birds fly over head. "Have either of you sensed any magic here? There's a low hum of magical energy, but it's all around us, I can't find the source."

"Neither can I." Rin confessed, looking agitated. "Could that Roman guy have been wrong about the woods?"

"Doesn't he have a bunch of equipment though?" Ayaka asked uncertainly. She didn't want to say that all she could feel was a light hum of magic as well; it wouldn't be useful and it gave her a horrible feeling. Her insides felt sick from this magic.

"Can you feel anything Ayaka?" Rin asked, looking at the other black haired girl.

"Not really." Ayaka said softly, "I just feel the light magic like Ariene but... do you guys feel sick?"

"Sick?" Rin asked concern filling her blue eyes as she gazed at Ayaka. Sometimes, Ayaka believed that Rin looked much more like her sister than her actual one did. Manaka had been so blonde and dainty before she died.

Ariene joined the other two girls, her left hand glowing with a magical seal. "Are you scared?" She asked.

"Of course I am." Ayaka said, "But this isn't fear. It feels like there's something sticky on me."

"Sticky?" Ariene suddenly looked around again, her eyes closing as she lifted her left hand up. A magic circle appeared under Ayaka's feet and almost translucent waves of silver energy washed over her body. "Calm down Ayaka.

"What are you doing?!" Rin demanded as Ayaka herself freaked out.

Ariene opened her eyes then, letting the waves of energy freely flow around Ayaka. "Something has been bothering me ever since we got to Tokyo. It was almost as if there was no active magic in the air, almost as if the magic was stale. Then the other night, we all felt that incredible wave of magic and on the outskirts, it felt like divine magic but as you got closer it felt like a master's and servant's magic. Now we're here in the woods where Roman said there was a large, source of magic but we can barely fee a thing."

Ayaka felt concern prickle her skin as Rin frowned. What did that mean?

"Maybe some external force is blocking CHALDEAS and SHEBA." Ariene began. "It's also blocking the sensory skills of servants and masters that are not from this world, that's why you feel sick Ayaka."

Ayaka could feel her worry triple, but she tried to calm herself. She could not allow herself to panic. Not in this situation. She had to be strong; if not for her sake, then for the sake of her new allies.

"But, that Roman guy was able to detect the magical energy last night." Rin protested, "And we all felt the surge of power that drew us to the manor."

Ariene looked thoughtful, her eyes going back to the magic circle at Ayaka's feet as it started to change color. It went from the gentle silver to blue, then green and kept shifting as Ayaka stood there; though she was calming down. "We were probably drawn in... to the manor and woods, whoever is doing this wanted to bring us here." She gave a slight smile. "We fell for their trap without a hitch."

"How is that something to smile about?!" Rin demanded.

"Ayaka can feel the magic because she's from this world, it's probably why she feels sick and sticky. That's why I'm scanning her over with my magic, maybe I can detect something and it'll lead us to the source. So just stay still Ayaka, it'll be over soon."

Ayaka nodded, she needed to keep her mind off of this. "Ariene, you never answered Rin's question."

Ariene smirked at that, "If it was a good idea for Issie and Cleo to be in the same group? They are friends, even if it doesn't look like it right now, so don't think they hate each other. But, at the moment, probably not. When Cleo's stressed she becomes a control freak who tries to stick to her plans as much as possible. Issie on the other hand, acts before she thinks." She laughed at the thought. "I would hate to be Arthur right now."

Arthur POV

"-What's wrong with you?!" Arthur looked between the two feuding girls, a nervous look on his face. They had been snapping back at each other for the last thirty minutes.

"What do you mean?! I didn't do anything!" Issie snapped back, her amber eyes burning with fire.

Cleo stomped her foot, not caring if she was acting like a child. "You can't just rush off by yourself! I mean, look at what just happened!"

Arthur honestly tried not to make any noise. After they had broken away from the group, both Cleo and Issie had walked a few steps ahead of him and they seemed fine; they didn't talk much, if they did talk it was to point out birds or flowers and of course to see if either of them could sense the magic that Roman had told them about. They seemed completely amiable!

At least... until Issie had thought she had felt a surge of magic and rushed ahead of both of them without thinking and ended up falling into a ditch; causing her to be covered in mud and dust.

Ever since that happened the two had been bickering non-stop even as they continued to walk through the woods under the canopy of trees, even about things that weren't related their mission. Cleo would say that Issie needed to be more organized and Issie would fire back that Cleo was too judgmental; or Issie would accuse Cleo of thinking her a nuisance and actual disliked her and Cleo would deny it before saying that Issie was overemotional and childlike and it went on and on and on... he didn't think he could take any more.

"Hey, Issie, Cleo... shouldn't we focus on searching for that magic source?" Arthur asked, trying to sound mature and professional. He really hoped the nervousness didn't bleed into his voice.

"Shut up!" Issie snapped.

"Stay out of this!" Cleo said at the same time, their glares turning to him in sync, causing his steps to falter as he froze.

"R-right..." Arthur said, a nervous laugh escaping his lips. He really felt the heat of both their glares for those seconds that they looked at him before they continued to glare at each other.

Why did he have to get stuck with them? He wondered silently as he continued to walk. How did Ariene deal with them?

Ariene laughed again as she tried to imagine what Issie would have done by now. She always got too excited when talking about missions, that's why both Kakeru and Cleo had been nervous at the thought of her going on an actual mission.

"Is it almost done?" Ayaka asked, watching the ripples of translucent red-gold run over her arms.

Ariene smirked, "It's done." She held out her left hand again and the magic circle dissipated as the energy-like magic gathered in her hand forming a transparent, rippling ball of energy.

"What now?" Rin asked.

"We let the magic lead us to the source." Ariene smiled as the magic rolled out of her palm like water to slide along the path they'd been on. "At least we were walking the right way."

The three of them followed the shimmering magic for a good forty-five minutes before it stopped. The magic curled around the the entrance of a dark looking cave.

"Well that's fun." Rin said sarcastically. Now she could feel a strong wave of magic coming from the cave. "Are we going in?"

"I'm going to contact the others." Ariene decided, her eyes were narrowed on the entrance. "If we go in now, we'd be in trouble."

Both of the black haired girls nodded and Ariene contacted her Chaldean group through their mind link. Giving them her location. She really hoped that they got there fast because Ariene just knew that the real battle was going to begin now.

Please review for feedback!

Next chapter things take a dark turn! Promise that there will be a LOT of fighting in the next chapter! Hoped you enjoyed!