Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

"Even with so much magic potential, simply overwhelming opponents with that power isn't going to cut it at some point," Azu commented lazily from her spot on an overhead cliff as she watched Alice randomly strike a burly member of Amarok Fang. Azu had been leading Alice through the mountain ranges of northern Ishgar in search all remaining members of Amarok Fang. In addition to completing the Council's second request, the fact that Alice was fighting against Amarok Fang could earn her some points, if only a few, with the Magic Council so that they would be only a little more trusting that Alice wouldn't be a danger to them any longer. After all, Azu couldn't just bring in the infamous Acnologia and expect everything to go just fine, could she?

"And what do you mean by that?" Alice whined as she knocked her opponent into a lump of his 'Cursed Ice', rendering him unconscious. After all, it wasn't as if she wasn't trying and the fact that Azu was just kicking back didn't make her take the comment any better.

Jumping down from the cliff and softly landing next to Alice, Azu continued, "You're just hitting wherever your limbs connect with first, occasionally alternating between them, without too much thought or care for where they actually hit. Am I wrong?"

Looking down at the dark mage's unmoving body, Alice laughed awkwardly and answered, "Sorta… But isn't that good enough?"

"For someone like him," Azu said as she pointed at the body, "it'll be good enough, but just being 'good enough' isn't a good mindset to have." How hypocritical of me… "Also, it'll save you a lot of strength and energy if you don't just attack randomly."

"I see…" Alice stated as she stared deep into Azu's eyes, looking like a child eager to learn. "So, what should I do then?"

"I suppose there are only a few basic concepts that I like to go by, but I have nothing against you creating your own ideas based off of them. I'd assume that you would rather not use my techniques to their full extent because they usually end in the death of the opponent, where you said that you'd rather not have to consciously kill," Azu began thoughtfully. "First, you should aim for weak spots rather than just anywhere on your opponent. Second, you should watch for what movement your opponent will make next so that you can counter it, as opposed to just ignoring their actions and continuing to attack. Third, you might want to stop talking or shouting in the middle of your fights… I don't know what it is with talking in the middle of fighting here, but it's seriously stupid because it takes away your concentration away from the fight and leaves you more vulnerable."

And… Alice was having an intense stare-off with a butterfly that had landed on her nose. "Fourth, pay attention rather than getting distracted," Azu forcibly added as she lay her head to rest in her hands, shaking her head in a twinge of disappointment. When Alice still did not take her eyes off of the butterfly, Azu impatiently resorted to a form of the telekinesis she had developed on Earth to remove the butterfly from its position. However, in that impatient impulse, she had forgotten her little rule of trying to mask all of her 'unnatural' actions as magic. It's not as if she had to worry about the attention her abnormalities would receive, but rather it was the consequences of said attention that worried her - that is, if she had learned anything from her life on Earth. Having black blood and revealing that was one thing, but being able to control matter without magic was just something that could not be ignored nor passed up on.

Seemingly unconcerned that her childish game had been abruptly ended, Alice asked in wonder, "You can use telekinesis without a motion to tell your target where to go?"

In light of the fact that she acts so much like a young child, it's easy to forget that she's lived for centuries and has practically infinite knowledge in comparison to others here. In the meanwhile, I'm here in the body of a 12-year-old with the knowledge of someone that shouldn't be allowed to exist and the mindset of a late-teenager. We're two of a kind, I guess… Azu thought to herself. To answer her question, should I tell her the truth and trust her not to go and blab or do I just use the old "I'm just that skilled" spiel? … Well, both make me look like an asshole - not to say that isn't exactly inaccurate - but at least the first one doesn't make me look arrogant. I guess I'll just go with the option of telling her and hoping that she won't tell others freely. Hopefully, she'll understand why I wouldn't just tell everyone without me having to tell her…

Wrapping up her thoughts, she revealed, "In truth, that wasn't actually magic. Just like how you can turn into a dragon despite being human, I also have some drastic differences with my body that allow me to go far beyond the usual abilities of humans." At a slow but understanding nod from Alice, she continued. "In this case, I materialized a barrier created from the surrounding atmosphere that separated the butterfly from the rest of the world down to the last atom and used that to safely send it flying far away."

At this second part, Alice only gave Azu a questioning look, asking, "What's an atom?"

Only a little surprised that Alice didn't know, Azu began, "Not that it's really important for you to know right now, but an atom is the basic uni-" Obviously, the people of this world don't have the understanding of science that even some of the most worthless whelps on Earth did. Not even knowing how the world is held together… They probably think it's just magic that everything works the way it does! It's absolutely a miracle that they have steel without even knowing how it's made, never mind the fact that they use it abundantly! And the fact that-

"Oi, shut up…" Azu muttered. "Just because you agreed to not go and insult me for a while doesn't mean you can interrupt me when you feel like it to rant, no matter how much I might agree with the basic principles of what you're saying."

Oh, but it doesn't imply that I can't go and do that either and you even admitted that you agree- "I did not-"with what I said- "Just go away-" … nope. It's amusing to see the one you call 'Alice' looking at you as if you've got serious issues.

Turning her attention to the girl in question, Alice was indeed looking at Azu with a mix of concern and curiosity. And just to top it off, she had to ask in such an innocent voice, "Are you, by chance, insane?"

Sighing internally as her little voice laughed maniacally, she simply answered, "I suppose-" Say yes! "I can't say no-" Say yes! "so I'll just-" Say YES! "have to-" SAY YES! "say yes." FINALLY! … Shut up.

Eyeing her with her same mixed expression, Alice cautiously voiced, "That's good to know…"

"Good, but don't expect me to be talking to myself again anytime soon because I think it's had its fun for now," Azu responded instantly, trying to move away from the topic. "And to answer your question from before, atoms are the basic unit of all physical substances - the air around us, the rocks beneath us, the two of us, and so on." Making sure that Alice understood at least somewhat, she continued, "With the entertainment out of the way, do you remember the four points I just told you about your fighting?"

Counting off her fingers, Alice listed, "One: Aim for weak spots. Two: Don't ignore what the opponent does. Three: Talk less, fight more. Four: Pay attention." Looking at Azu for reassurance, she pressed, "Was that right?"

It's not like she's wrong or anything - it's just incredibly simplified… "Close enough. As long as you show that you understand these principles when you fight from now on, that list is good enough." After a slight pause, Azu asked, "I assume you remember the weak spots of humans from your time as a drunken dragon?" A nod. "And you remember which ones can be lethal and which ones are merely to incapacitate someone?" Another nod. "Good. We'll test that on our next target."

"Who's next?" Alice asked

With a whispered "Swords of Thanatos" and a sword through the unconscious dark mage's heart and brain each, Azu responded, "In Amarok Fang, we've taken care of everyone except their Guild Master, although they appear to be with another Dark Guild on my hit list for the time being."

Materializing a projection of a flat-screen not too different in terms of appearance from Archive Magic, Azu brought up a map of Ishgar with labels in a few different spots. Pointing to relevant locations on the map as she went, Azu told Alice, "We started over here in the southern mountains of Seven by the border with Fiore. Right now, we're here in the mountains of Iceberg, near the border with Pergrande. As for where we're going next… that would be over here, on the complete opposite side of the continent - the southern tip of Midi." Turning away from the map and towards Alice, she continued, "Up until now, you've only been facing one enemy at a time, even if they haven't been holding back at all. Despite the fact that you pretty easily won against all of them without trying much at all, it would be safer to try out the four things I've told you not so long ago when going against an entire guild."

"But aren't the guilds outside of Fiore mostly weaker?" Alice inquired.

"Generally, yes, but there was a rumor (that I didn't bother to authenticate) in one of the international newspapers' articles a few weeks back that said something about the Guild Master originally being from Fiore, so it would be best to show caution," Azu recalled. "Any more questions before we go?"

"Well… what kind of magic does this Guild Master use?"

"He's practically an expert of Sun Magic and has taught most of his guild Sun Magic as well," Azu answered.

"Sun Magic?..." Alice echoed.

"400 years?..."

"Hey!" Came an indignant shout. "Just because I've been alive a long time doesn't mean that I'd know everything! Maybe it's just a new kind of magic created by people who worshipped the Sun God Helios!"

"Ignoring the fact that Helios is another god-like figure known where I was originally from, that theory is quite possible…" Azu acknowledged. "Anything else?" And with a shake of Alice's head, Azu whisked them off to Midi.

It was a normal day in the port town of Seredina, Midi. The ocean off the piers was calm and all was well in the streets. People were going about their daily lives in the usual lively calm they always did. The sun shone down on them as brightly as it always did. Everyone was happy with how things were.

That said, Seredina was anything but a normal town. The people of the town were mostly mages that were all part of a single mage guild and if they weren't, they worked for said guild. The town's guild was incredibly powerful - the most powerful in the country - and the town itself was something of a playground for its mages. By saying that the ocean off the piers was calm was to say that there was a miniature sun-like star of pure magic floating not too far off the coast whose magical pressure applied on the water forced it to become completely still albeit in a boiling state. To say that all was well in the streets was to say that the black and legal markets flourished equally. To say that the people were going about their daily lives in their usual lively calm manner was to say that there were small solar flares and replica suns all over the town while the people joked and played around as if nothing was unusual, which was completely true in their views. To say that the sun shone down on them as brightly as ever… Simply put, one could not possibly imagine that phrase in the context of the town of Seredina, for the power of literally thousands of suns beat down on the town constantly.

Anyone who dared to visit the town would be, rightfully so, confused as to how the people or even the buildings themselves could survive such heat and magical pressure, but it's not like the town attracted many visitors that could've cared "minor detail". And it's not like the newest three to visit cared about these details, but they were curious nonetheless.

A little over a mile above the town hall was an expansive temporary platform with said three standing atop it. One donned black gym sweats and another wore a purple and white dress, both outfits matching the eye colors of their respective owners. The other had on a white frilly dress with a red ribbon tied in a bow around their neck, which contrasted with their deep green eyes. The one in purple turned to the one in black and asked, "That didn't feel like Teleportation Magic, so was it more of your non-magical stuff with these 'atoms' or whatever?" Receiving a nod, she pouted and remarked, "Show-off."

"Oh, and I asked Mavis if she wanted to come along to see how you'd handle something like this," the one in black told the one in purple. "She came along wanting to see if what she was going to say to her guild about you and not killing had merit and plus, it would be a real pain to explain to the Magic Council how you're not a blood-thirsty dragon if you went and razed the town."

"So, keep damage at a minimum while fighting an entire town full of serial arsonists and murderers that use a very potent kind of magic?" Mavis interjected.

"I didn't say that and if I did, I didn't mean it that way," the one in black corrected. "All I mean is that there should be no civilian casualties. From what you've told me, Mavis, your guild members can be pretty destructive at times. The Council deals with all that in some way or another and they still haven't disbanded your guild, so how different could it be Alice here if we eventually drag her along to Fairy Tail?" Sneaking a look, a hasty "Only if you want to come, that is," was given in the direction of Alice.

"Of course I'll come with you, Azu," Alice consented happily. Lowering both her head and voice, she mumbled, "It's not like I have other friends or anything to go with…"

Giving her a slap on the back with a wide smile, Azu added, "Great! Now we know you'll be coming with us, but we've still got work ahead of us. While you're out fighting every last person in town, I'll go and find out what the Guild Master of Amarok Fang is doing here and Mavis will be watching you 'work'. We'll meet back up here when we're all done, and yes, once everyone in town is defeated, it should be safe enough for you to transform into a dragon and fly up here, Alice - assuming you can still do that."

"I can still transform and this platform should be big enough for me," Alice affirmed before shouting "I'm off!" and jumping headfirst off of the platform.

Eyes following Alice as she plunged down towards the town, Azu turned to Mavis and told her, "Well, I ought to go as well," as she too took the plunge towards the town below. While Azu could actually fly and therefore landed gracefully near the center of the town, Alice was not so fortunate and barely managed to land on her feet a few blocks away, creating a massive crater in the process.

With the attention of the townspeople nearby on the disturbance that Alice had created, Azu nonchalantly waltzed towards the guild hall of Arcadia Leaf, which also happened to be the town hall itself. Of course, she already knew where her target was, so it wasn't hard to find the Guild Master of Amarok Fang. After all, she was sitting on the steps of the town hall, completely wasted.

As Azu walked towards her, she turned and slurred, "O' 'ey there, back fro' Minstr'l so soon?..."

"Minstrel?" Azu repeated.

"Didn't'ja say tha' ya were goin' ta go 'n' visit Blend'd Note b'fore comin' back ta ya guild 'ere?" The drunk Guild Master ran on.

"Well, ya got da wrong pers'n," Azu mocked. "I'm here to play with you and then kill you, nothing else, so hurry up and put up a fight if you've got anything in you."

Getting the message, she immediately popped up from her spot on the steps of the town hall and shouted, "Meteor!" Drawing two daggers made of pure magical ice from behind her, she charged Azu head-on, her daggers headed for the neck with a precision that shouldn't have been possible considering how drunk she was.

Dodging rapidly, Azu thought to herself, This seems to fit the description of Heavenly Body Magic that the one named 'Jellal Fernandez' uses, though this obviously isn't him. Pausing for a moment, she continued, Now that I think of it, what's up with that Spanish sounding surname? And then she got a couple dagger through the neck.

And you were the one who was telling Alice to be focused and not lose her concentration while fighting.

You, be quiet. I can heal myself instantly. By the looks of it, she can't.

But it doesn't help that you're being cut to pieces as we speak, does it?

And indeed, Azu's head was no longer attached to the rest of her. Her limbs were all detached and were currently being minced. She couldn't help but sweatdrop at the level of pain tolerance she had to have in order to not have noticed her own decapitation.

With her body in the state that it was, it would be appropriate to note that speaking would be out of the question, so Azu could be given a pass for not using a verbal incantation for her Heal. However, it's like that sort of thing would've matter for the nature of her injuries, because it's extremely unrealistic to even be alive after being beheaded and chopped to shreds. For a second reason why it didn't really matter whether or not she actually said her incantations, it was pretty clear that most of the townspeople were preoccupied by Alice's ruckus, so there wouldn't be a very high chance of her being caught. However, it couldn't hurt to be careful.

Ending her deliberations with herself there, Azu used her Heal and like nothing at all had happened, her body was suddenly whole and undamaged. Naturally, the drunkard who had been mutilating the body all but seconds ago was taken aback, giving Azu a short window to think up a way to play with the last of Amarok Fang.

Well, we're in a town of predominantly Sun Magic users and I'd still like to have a larger repertoire of verbal spells… I can fuse Pure and Purgatory Dragon Slayer Magics to get a mixture of light and fire which would be close enough to Sun Magic, she decided. And she decided just in time to dodge the first of a new round of attacks.

Immediately, Azu followed up with a wave of her outstretched hand in the direction of the Guild Master and a commanding "Pure Purgatory Dragon's Flare." Just barely, the intended target shot away using her Meteor before Azu's version of a magical solar flare could touch her. Instead, the flare caused a nearby building to lose its street-facing facade, although somehow leaving the rest of the structure intact.

Seeing as the fight was finally beginning, the Guild Master stopped some 20 feet from Azu, threw down her daggers, and crossed her arms above her head, creating a large and intricate magic circle. Rapidly, the shadows from hundreds of feet around swarmed towards her and rose to form a small black orb that rapidly grew to resemble a black hole. Additionally, the black hole-like spell began to gravitationally attract everything around it, including light, causing it to sprout a generous number of white spots on its exterior, in turn making it resemble the night sky. Within mere seconds, the spell was complete and its user shouted, "ALTAIRIS!"

Using the names of stars to create black holes? Sure… Azu answered to herself before hurriedly muttering "Pure Black Dragon's Zeta Sco" to create her own version of a black hole that she sent flying towards her opponent. I'll play that game as well, then, she resolved. Using light and darkness to create the black hole and then using the name of a star that has ten times more mass should be good enough. The two spells collided and Azu's Zeta Sco almost instantly overpowered her opponent's Altairis before continuing to barrel towards a rather shocked Guild Master. Unluckily for her, that shock prevented her from moving away from the spell in time and thus she was struck with full force.

Fortunately for her, however, even though such a powerful spell hit her, she would live thanks to her massive magical reserves that allowed her a healthy magical resistance. Nonetheless, she would be significantly weakened for the rest of the fight and by no means could that be considered anything other than unfortunate considering the strength of her opponent. One might still congratulate her on making it that far if it was taken into account that she was drunk and that she was facing off against the infamous 'Black Blood' - not that she had realized either of those facts.

Not skipping a moment longer than required, she charged straight for the waiting Azu once again, prepping a potent spell as she went. As she closed in, she screamed, "Gromada Ar-" but was cut off before she could finish

Polish? Japanese, Latin, Greek, and now Polish? What language should I be expecting next? Azu questioned as she grabbed the lower area of the drunk woman's face with both hands, forcing her mouth shut and thus canceling the spell. Deciding playtime was over, Azu cupped the face of the Guild Master stiffly and whispered in a deathly quiet, "Pure Purgatory Dragon's Hypernova."

The magic from Azu's spell coursed through the body of the Guild Master of Amarok Fang, building up in all places possible as more and more Ethernano poured directly into her head from the hands of the First-Ranked Wizard Saint. Eventually, so much of it built up that it caused Azu's opponent to explode before her - letting the spell stay true to its name. Of course, the explosion of a body from within and the spraying of blood that is caused by it isn't very comparable to the beauty that can be seen in the results of supernovae and hypernovae.

Well, that's another guild that's been completely slaughtered, although that last death could've been a little cleaner, Azu regretted as she looked down at her clothing. Not that it matters too much anyway since it's beyond trivial for me to clean a mess like this in an instant, albeit without magic… in a world where the only logical way to achieve such a task so quickly is through magic. … Well, at least Alice has everyone around here distracted so that they wouldn't see anything suspicious from me.

With a not even as much as a glance, Azu willed the blood on her clothes to disappear - which it did - before heading towards a building that resembled an Ancient Greek temple. She had spotted it earlier when she was free falling from her platform above. Alice had mentioned the possibility that Sun Magic was "a new kind of magic created by people who worshipped the Sun God Helios." Temple that looks as if it was Ancient Greek? God with a Greek name? Maybe they're related, so it'd be worth checking out.

Oh, and now that I think about it, I had used my non-magical flight abilities to land softly at the end of my freefall, but I haven't come up with a "spell name" for that… Azu realized. Mavis didn't question my lack of incantation when we dove down the cave at Mount Zonia because she already knew my past at that point and Alice wouldn't question it too much because she knows about what I can do to a certain extent as well, but everyone else on this planet still doesn't know and probably should never know because I don't want magical researchers following me everywhere asking me to be subjected to their research and experiments.

Pausing to ponder for a moment, she ended up choosing 'Volare', the Latin verb for flight. With that out of the way, she continued to make her way towards the temple. With any luck, Alice would be done with the crowd of dark mages and criminals she had attracted with her botched landing soon enough so that they could investigate the temple together without too much of a delay.

By the time Azu reached the temple, it seemed that luck was plentiful in this instance, for Alice was also walking up to the temple with no change in her appearance but a few wrinkles on her dress. "No problems, I take it?" Azu called out, to which Alice agreed, "No problems, thanks to your advice." The former couldn't help but smile there and then, proud that her advice actually helped.

"They seemed too easy, though. It didn't feel right," Alice continued.

"About that, the Guild Master of Amarok Fang was drunk enough to reveal without hesitation that her counterpart in Arcadia Leaf is currently away visiting yet another Dark Guild in a neighboring country," Azu informed her. "We're going to be quite busy today…"

Giving an understanding nod, Alice returned her attention to the very out of place building that stood before her. In contrast to the colorfully painted brick and plaster houses that dominated the town, this structure, which she now recognized as a temple, was completely white. Its purity in lack of color pigments let it shine over the rest of the buildings in the town, giving the impression that it was the most important structure for the people of the town.

Looking past the massive chiseled pillars that held up the roof, Alice saw at least a few dozen people standing diligently by what appeared to be the entrance to the structure. She was also able to sense that they were mages of a higher caliber than those she had just fought. It would be hard to imagine what they could be there for other than to guard something of great importance.

Looking over at Azu, Alice was met with an expecting stare from her, as if she was waiting for Alice to gather all the clues and figure the situation out. "Got the general idea of what's going on here?" Azu tested, to which a swift nod was received. "Good." A thoughtful pause followed. "Before we force our way in, I should point out that this style of temple architecture is another thing originally from my old world and is from the same group of people that had Helios as their Sun deity, or something like that. We should look out for things that might be used for summoning as we go through, assuming that your theory from before is correct." With an understanding nod shared between both girls, they left to continue their work on that note.

As they approached the front of the temple, one of the mages guarding its entrance called out, "Halt! State your business!" From his side, another warned, "There is a good chance that you will not be allowed entrance because the Head Priest is attempting to contact the Great Helios!"

"Just taking a calming stroll," Azu quipped, to the irritation of the mage guards.

Inching closer, a third guard soon threatened, "If you come any closer, we will be forced to fire upon you!"

Ignoring the warnings given to them, Azu and Alice continued on at a casual pace rather than a pace that showed any signs of rushing, just to further aggravate the guards. When the two were practically at the steps of the temple, the guards finally took it upon themselves to begin attacking the would-be intruders.

"Sinum Currus!" They all shouted in unison, raising their hands to face their targets. Almost immediately after, plasma burst forth from their hands at immense speeds, rushing forward as it took the shape of a line of gleaming chariots each led by four horses, all of which looked as if they were made of the sun itself. The newly created vehicles were going so fast that their targets didn't have much time to react, so little so that Alice only had time to do the first thing she could think of. Opening her mouth wide, she began to eat the Sun Magic as it raced towards her.

This is delicious! She raved, tears of happiness forming in her eyes. Much to her disappointment, however, the stream of magic flowing into her mouth was far from endless and ended much too fast for her liking.

The mages guarding the temple stared at her, aghast at what they had just witnessed. As mages in Arcadia Leaf, their Guild Master had told all of them stories about a handful of people in his birth country of Fiore who had the ability to eat certain kinds of magic: the Slayers. They were entertained by the stories of their power and potential, but never did they think that one who could eat SUN MAGIC would come to Seredina and attack. There was no doubt in the reality of the situation; Their worst nightmare was right in front of them.

Taking advantage of the fact that the guards were frozen in terror, Azu murmured, "Absolute Zero." Without so much as the time to register that she had even moved her mouth, all of the dark mages were encased in her ice. As per the usual, this also meant that their entire being was frozen and they were now dead.

"You're… not killing them?" Alice hesitantly hoped, but that hope was ultimately crushed when she was given the response of, "Don't worry. They're completely dead. I just used a spell that isn't destructive because it would be inconvenient if the temple collapsed before we even got to see what's inside of it." It's what she always does, Alice tried to convince herself in consolation.

Making their way past Azu's ice sculptures, they entered the temple and found that it was only a single, humongous room on the inside. It was, for the most part, very dimly lit with only torches to serve as light by the walls. However, there was unsurprisingly also a little sun in the center of the temple that was floating midway between the floor and the ceiling. Beneath that sun was an elderly man who had his hands clasped together was entirely absorbed in chanting quietly at it. He was wearing a white cassock, something Azu noted as being similar to what the Roman Pontiff would've worn back on Earth.

"Do we, um… interrupt him?" Alice whispered through the corner of her mouth as she looked at the elderly man.

"It's not like we can just walk up to him and ask questions," Azu replied. Sweeping her gaze over the room, she continued, "He's the only person in here other than us, so he must be the Head Priest that the mages outside mentioned. If that's true, then he most certainly wouldn't want to be bothered and probably also wouldn't want to answer any questions we have."

Alice thought for a moment and then agreed, "I guess you're ri-"

"ENEMIES OF THE GREAT HELIOS! HOW DARE YOU SET FOOT INTO HIS MOST HOLY TEMPLE!" The Head Priest suddenly screamed as he finally noticed the two girls standing in the entrance. "LEAVE AT ONCE OR FACE HIS WRATH!"

"Swords of Thanatos," Azu whispered before adding, "I'd like to see your 'Great Helios' try." With a flash, she was behind the Head Priest in an instant and cut his head off in one clean stroke before using her second sword to cut him in half across the abdomen. With blood pouring out from his lethal wounds, she quickly threw up all three pieces of him into the miniature sun above them.

Ignoring the face Alice was giving her out of disdain for brutal killings, Azu proceeded to wordlessly begin pouring magic into the small sun that remained above her. The currently frozen and dead mages by the entrance of the temple had said that the, also currently dead, Head Priest was attempting to contact Helios. Since Helios was more than likely not in the room, it could only be assumed that the chanting the Head Priest was doing earlier was to pour magic into the little sun in order to summon Helios. Azu had no idea if a certain type of magic was needed to summon Helios, nor did she care. If this sun was the object through which he was summoned, then all she had to do was pour a tremendous amount of magic into it and hope for the best.

And that she did. Within seconds, the small sun began to expand and lighten in color. As long as Azu continued feeding it with magic, it kept doing so until it suddenly turned pure white and quickly vanished into a cloud of white vapor that clouded the entire temple.

Once the air cleared, a very tall man, at least 20 feet tall, stood where the sun once was. Glaring at Azu and Alice in turn, he boomed, "YOU HAVE DEFILED MY TEMPLE! FOR YOUR CRIMES, PERISH!" And with that last word, solar flares raced from all the surfaces of Helios's body towards where each of the two girls were standing.

Alice leaped aside gracefully to avoid being hit, allowing the flares to explode upon contact with the wall behind her. And then she heard an even louder explosion from where Azu was standing. Apparently, the girl in black hadn't moved at all when the flares were sent in her direction and she had taken the hit to its fullest extent. As a reward for her lack of movement, she was enveloped in a ball of white fire and remained within it for a good half a minute.

And then she got bored. Thankfully, the Sun God's fire was hotter than the God Serena's Purgatory Dragon's Blazing Hell, or Azu would've been seriously disappointed with the assignment of the proper title of "god". However, the heat was only enough to barely tickle her and that was nowhere near interesting enough for her, as she believed that an actual god would have much more power than just enough to make her feel a little heat. Sure, Helios might not have been an actual god on Earth, but things might be different on Earthland.

"Null," she stated, clearing the fire around her. Looking at where Alice was originally standing, Azu turned to Helios and told him, "You know, at least I took care not to damage your temple, but then you go and destroy it yourself…"

"THE PRICE MATTERS NOT! YOU MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE FACE OF EARTHLAND FOREVER!" The Sun God retorted angrily. "BESIDES, MY SERVANTS WILL REBUILD MY TEMPLE FOR ME!"

"Servants?" Alice repeated, not sure of who these 'servants' might be.

The Sun God proclaimed proudly, "THE PEOPLE OF THIS TOWN ARE ALL MY SERVANTS-"

"Then that means you'll have to die as well," Azu interjected. "Alice, you'd better steel yourself for this fight. If you must, you can change into your other form, but try not to so we can avoid civilian casualties. The Council will be pissed if the entire town was slaughtered, but if it's only a handful of dark mages and the god that calls them his servants, they should be pretty much okay with it."

"I'll try to ignore what you said about killing being okay, so let's go!" Alice yelled in anticipation of fighting a god for the first time.

"INSOLENT FOOLS!" Helios roared. "YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL M-"

"False God's Titanium Fist."

"Etherion Dragon's Iron Fist!"

True to Azu's advice to not talk during a fight, the duo ignored the god's comment and simply rushed to attack in sync. Azu attacked the left side of Helios's chest in her usual calm demeanor while Alice took the right side with her own innocent excitement. The result of the attack was that their opponent was blown clean off of his feet and sent flying into one of the walls of his temple.

"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO-" he started, only to be cut off by his own groans of pain.

"Etherion Dragon's Crushing Fang!"

"False God's Scythe."

Alice's strike went for the neck this time, going for a weaker point as Azu had suggested. As per her own advice, Azu also went for a weak spot, slashing at the god's stomach. That said, Helios was gigantic compared to a normal human, so a hard strike to the neck didn't mean that anything would be broken and a slash across the stomach didn't mean that he was cut in two. Yes, it was still true that he was being choked and cut open at the same time, but neither was going to be fatal.

Getting up as the two girls rebounded from their attacks, he screamed, "AETHIOPS! BRONTE! EOUS! STEROPE!"

With only Helios's screams as a warning, Alice and Azu were treated to the summoning of another chariot much like the ones they had seen from the earlier confrontation with the mage guards outside. However, there was one big difference here. The amount of magic power that he exhibited in commanding that spell was truly enormous - so much so that it caused the foundations of the temple to shake.

"Alice! Go attack him and use whatever you have to - I'll keep these overpowered sun horses off of you!" Azu declared.

Alice simply looked over and nodded in understanding before activating Dragon Force. She didn't do it a moment too soon, for the instant that her power-up finished, Helios was also ready, shouting, "SKOTÓNO!"

With that, the four horses broke free from their chariot and raced towards Alice, who in turn had charged at Helios. Heading to intercept the horses from reaching Alice, Azu muttered, "Volare." Hovering barely above the ground to grant her greater mobility, she raced towards the first of the horses.

I am NOT sticking my precious black swords into pure plasma, especially because it's magical, Azu assured herself (and her swords by extension) as she reached her target. I'll just have to use my hands… as much as I prefer to use weapons. Oh well, I'll just have to take it out on someone else later on.

Materializing a pair of black gloves directly onto her hands, she softly spoke, "Enchant: Null." With no time wasted, she cocked her right arm back and slammed her fist into the charging horse's muzzle, knocking it aside into the horse coming up from behind it. That spared Azu no time, however, for the remaining two horses rushed by from behind the temporarily fallen two.

Picking up her speed, Azu sped in the direction of the horse closest to Alice. When she was only inches from its side, she slid underneath it and punch straight up, knocking the horse a good few feet into the air. Using her Volare to increase her height off the ground, Azu let the horse fall back to the ground a little, but only so that she could get in a strong punch to its side, sending it flying into the second horse that had previously run by her.

As much as she would've preferred that it would be that easy to incapacitate the four horses, that proved to not be the case, as the first two horses she had taken on had just gotten back up, ready to continue. Luckily for her, the Null enchantment had taken down the horses' magical strength, so a few more hits to each of them should be able to dispel them. It wouldn't be so long until she would be able to fight Helios, unless Alice finished first…

In the meanwhile, Alice wasn't exactly having a good time. Sure, she might be the "Black Dragon of the Apocalypse", but Helios was apparently pretty good at blocking and dodging hits when he meant business. As she was considering the fact that Helios had taken the previous hits on purpose, she remembered something along the lines of what Azu had told her and applied it to what had happened (all while still fighting at full throttle). The Sun God probably only took those hits from before because he was trying to shout at Azu and herself rather than actually fight them. As soon as he had stopped trying to belch out insults for their insolence in his presence, he had put up a much greater fight, forcing Azu to single-handedly fight four horses of preposterous power and leaving Alice to face him at his best.

Snapping herself out of her thoughts before she ended up like Helios did earlier, Alice faced towards the aforementioned God and decided that it would be in everyone's best interests that she take him down as quickly as possible. As such, she raised her arms in front of her and opened her mouth wide, shouting, "Etherion Dragon's Three Pillars!" Upon her command, beams of concentrated ethernano burst from her hands and mouth, streaking directly towards her intended target.

On reflex, Helios brought up a palm and engulfed it in his godly Sun Magic in order to overpower the incoming attack. Or… at least, that was what he thought would happen. Instead, he was unpleasantly surprised when his magic failed to overpower the incoming attack. Usually, he could overpower any strength of magic with only what he had just failed with, so this fight was beginning to alarm him even further. Receiving the full force of the attack, he was lifted off of his feet once again and thrown back, although not into a wall this time. Rather, he was knocked into the four horses he had summoned, which were quickly thrown there by Azu once she realized that Alice was finally getting somewhere. They collided with such force that Helios dispelled the magic of his own horses, leaving only the chariot's body behind, but that too disappeared soon after.

This time, the Sun God recovered far faster than he had the first time he had been thrown, but with Azu freed up from her duty of horse control, she too joined the battle. As Helios shot countless miniature suns at the two girls, of which Azu dodge all and Alice dodged all but the ones she decided to eat, Azu prepared a new enchantment for her temporary gloves. Whispering, "Enchant: Sĭwáng," the gloves were given the concentrated power of Azu's ridiculously powerful death-like spell. All she needed now was for the god to stop summoning the endless streams of suns so that she could get in a solid hit and kill him.

Turning to Alice as they dodged the suns in midair, the two shared a knowing glance, realizing it was about time that this battle came to an end. Together, they positioned themselves shoulder to shoulder, facing Helios directly in front of them as they continued to dodge and cast their spells in unison.

"Etherion Dragon's Roar!"

"False God's Bellow."

The spells reached Helios and disintegrated all of the suns in their paths, for their combined strength, even if they were separate spells, easily outmatched the magical strength of the suns. When the spell broke through Helios's defense once again, Azu wasted no time in accelerating through the air with her Volare and coming down fast on the center of the god's chest with her fist.

Still on the ground, Helios expected the singular punch not to do very much damage, even if he couldn't dodge it at all. However, the Null and Sĭwáng enchantments that Azu had placed on her gloves not only removed the Sun God's magical defenses on impact but also delivered a massive dose of pure death straight to the god at the same time. Being a god, he got lucky and didn't die from what should've been a lethal blow, but he was pretty damn close to the edge.

Now knowing that the amount of danger he was in was taking to completely new heights, Helios was forced into using his most powerful magic. He had never before been forced to use such magic against mere humans. It was beyond blasphemous and yet, it would be completely necessary if he wanted to make it out alive. However, there was only one problem: He couldn't actually move. He had realized his perilous situation almost immediately following the strike from the girl in black and had come to his decision almost immediately after that, but he found that he could not move to execute that plan.

Azu, fully aware of where she had hit and the force with which she had done so, already knew why he couldn't move. She had very quickly done a scan of the Sun God's body to test if he was anatomically similar to humans and she was rewarded with the information that he was indeed similar anatomically to humans. Carrying this knowledge into the battle against him, she lowered his magical defenses and punched directly in the center of his chest, causing the sheer power of the punch to race through his chest and dislocate and/or snap the vertebrae of his spine. God or not, so long as he had a body structure similar to that of a human, a snap of his spine and he wasn't going to be moving anywhere soon - unless he had very high healing abilities like Azu did.

Intent on finishing what was almost done, Azu momentarily looked in the direction of Alice and materialized a copy of her gloves onto Alice's hands, enchantments included, albeit purple to match her attire. Alice, knowing Azu's abilities, didn't question this action too much and just took it to mean that the gloves would help in the fight, somehow. Sending an understanding nod of confirmation to Azu, the two of them set their sights back on the downed Sun God before leaping up into the air together.

Azu reached her preferable spot to attack from - midair, about ten feet above the form of Helios lying on the ground - thanks to the additional speed given by her Volare. Using the short amount of time she had before Alice delivered what would likely be the almost-killing blow, Azu whispered, "False God's Fall," pointing at the central part of the Sun God's left breast. It would merely crush the area around his heart, but that was something survivable for a god. Even though he had a massive gash on his stomach from Azu's previous False God's Scythe and even though he was paralyzed due to his spine being fractured, he could still live on, came next, however, was a different story.

Streaking down only half a second after Azu's attack, Alice brought her two fists together in front of her, ready to slam down onto her target, and shouted, "DRAGON SLAYER'S SECRET ART: ETHERNANO DOMINION!"

Even before her fists made contact, the pressure resulting from her Secret Art's initiation while having Dragon Force active caused the ground underneath her to crack and quake and even dent. When she landed the hit, her fists made quick work of Helios's ribcage, collapsing his lungs, bursting his heart open, shattering what was left of his spine in the area, and finally, shattering what remained of the temple's floor below his body and creating a massive crater. To save herself from a thoroughly disgusting scene, Alice had been careful not to pierce his skin and send bits of his lungs, heart, and bones flying out, not to mention the vast amounts of blood lost to internal bleeding that would come gushing out. It was bad enough that Azu had already slashed open the skin of his abdomen and Alice didn't need more than that. Just thinking about it made her sick - it made her remember her centuries of time under the curse of that "all-powerful God" and the countless murders she was responsible for during that time.

And then it hit her: Wasn't this just another case of her having murdered someone? Sure, it was Azu who had decided that the Sun God should die for having helped the Dark Guild Arcadia Leaf, but she couldn't just blame Azu for it. She had fought alongside Azu willingly, so it wasn't like she had no choice as it had been under the control of the "all-powerful God". No, she had full control over her decisions and wills now and yet, she decided to join her new friend in her mission to exterminate the strongest of the Dark Guilds in Ishgar. But then, if she said it that way, didn't it mean that she had murdered countless other people when she was being dragged around by Azu? Even if Azu had been the one to kill the members of Amarok Fang, didn't Alice herself play a big part in their deaths, since Azu would only kill them after she had beaten them? Maybe if she hadn't done anything and just let Azu kill them, she wouldn't have been involved at all, but Azu had only brought her out to the mountains to do exactly what she had done… But she still couldn't blame Azu because there clearly had to be a reason for what she had done, otherwise, she would've just killed everyone in Amarok Fang by herself without Alice's 'help'. But then again, everything was her choice to do this time around, so it really was her fault-

And then something hard hit her on the back of the head, snapping her out of her spiraling thoughts. Looking around to see what she had felt, Alice realized that it was Azu that had hit her across the back of the head. Before she could question why, she got her answer: "Oi, calm down a bit," Azu urged. "You're probably thinking about how you murdered someone even though it's one of the last things you would do, but he's not dead just yet." Returning to the Sun God's side, she slammed her left fist through his chest and into the ground, piercing the skin on both sides (and giving Alice the sight she had so carefully avoided), and slammed her right fist into his skull with even greater strength (and giving Alice yet another sight she would have greatly preferred to never have seen). "Now, he's dead. And before you go on thinking that any of today's deaths were your fault, unless you actually did kill someone when you were fighting in the streets, which would actually be your fault, just know that your hands were never at fault for the act that ultimately ended their lives. Each time I watched you fight someone, it was always at my hands that they died, not yours. Sure, you fought all of them, but not once did you deliver the killing blow. Since you told me that you wouldn't want to murder people at all, I only had you knock the members of Amarok Fang unconscious, without giving them any lethal wounds or outright killing them. Sure, I guess it still counts as assisting a murder if you knock someone out so that someone else can kill them, but let's just ignore that because that doesn't help your case at all and it wouldn't be good to think about that and I have no idea why I said that…" Pausing slightly, she sighed at her mistake and continued with a little more resolve, "Ignoring that last bit of what I just said, just know for yourself that you aren't a murderer. Unless you're suggesting you actually want to be one…"

With a furious shake of the head from an Alice with tears barely hanging in her eyes, Azu smiled warmly back at her. Even if she couldn't help Alice completely in dealing with her past and how it would affect her present and future, she could at least try a little. Changing the topic to one that wouldn't be so readily avoided, Azu reminded Alice, "Well, now that we're done, Mavis is still waiting for us above the city. Don't worry about flying up there by yourself. I'll carry you up there and hopefully, you'll feel a little better by the time we've met up with Mavis again."

With a complaint nod from one and another warm smile from the other, the two set off, finished in the town of Seredina.

Dark Guilds Left on the Hit List: 5

A/N: I'm not great with languages, English included, so please forgive me if I mistranslated any phrases, whether they be Polish, Latin, or Greek. Below are some explanations, translations, and related facts for parts I felt like writing more about.

...

I wasn't completely sure on how to tackle drunken slurring, so the outcome might be a little confusing. For those who might not have fully understood, here's that passage in (somewhat) normal English:

As Azu walked towards her, she turned and slurred, "Oh hey there, back from Minstrel so soon?..."

"Minstrel?" Azu repeated.

"Didn't you say that you were going to go and visit Blended Note before coming back to your guild here?" The drunk Guild Master ran on.

"Well, you've got the wrong person," Azu mocked. "I'm here to play with you and then kill you, nothing else, so hurry up and put up a fight if you've got anything in you."

...

Not long after that short conversation, Amarok Fang's Guild Master was going to use a spell that started "Gromada Ar-", which refers to the Polish name for the Arches Cluster - Gromada Arches. The Arches Cluster is the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way Galaxy, so the spell to be created that was named after such a star cluster would be a very concentrated and ferocious explosion that would easily rip the entire street around the target to shreds - not to mention what it could do to any normal mages. The only possible downside is that caster must be in close proximity to the target in order for the spell to be at its most effective, meaning that the caster risks ripping themselves to shreds if they're unable to withstand the force of their own spell.

As for the other spells with stars in their names, Altairis is a canon spell named after the 12th brightest star as seen from Earth, Altair. Altair can't actually turn into a black hole by any scientific means, but this is fiction so who really cares, you know? Anyway, Zeta-1 Scorpii is a star you've probably never heard of and it isn't remotely close to being among the brightest stars in the night sky on Earth, but Azu knows a thing or two that could help her out every now and then. In this case, the star with more mass won over the star that's more visible in the night sky.

...

In Greek mythology, Helios isn't actually a god, but rather only the personification of the sun. Despite this, and also the fact that he doesn't have any major temples on Earth, it wouldn't make sense for him to have to settle as a 'personification' in a world of magic, where he could actually be a god. Does that actually make sense? No, but is a world of magic necessarily supposed to make sense? No, not really. It'd be nice if it made sense, but then again, the world is not so kind.

As for the time that Helios started getting serious in the fight, he shouted, "AETHIOPS! BRONTE! EOUS! STEROPE!" These four - Aethiops, Bronte, Eous, and Sterope - are the names of the four horses that draw his chariot, according to the works of Eumelus of Corinth.