So, time to start with the chapter that probably should have come first, but hey, who doesn't like lake madness? Or all out chaos! Anyway, hope you enjoy!

At the Blue Pegasus guild hall

Ren, Eve, and Hibiki, otherwise known as the Trimen, headed up the walk towards there rather glittery guild hall.

"It's been six months and I can still feel those welts from that hailstorm Rina cast on me." Eve sighed to his friends as he rubbed his arm, he was wearing his usual cream colored tee shirt and striped tie, his messy blonde hair sticking up in several different spikes.

"Yeah, and Natsu took out most of our guild in one shot, that was embarrassing." Hibiki agreed as he recalled the grand magic games finale.

"You think that was embarrassing? Maybe you should ask Eve here whats embarrassing?" Ren suggested.

Eve elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Ha ha, yeah, your still teasing me about stupid Viper putting words in my mouth." The youngest of the trio complained.

Hibiki smirked, "You serious about Rina?" He asked.

Eve shrugged, "At first I thought she liked me when she asked for me to team up with her in Ticket Dash Crash. Than it turned out that she only wanted me with her and Millianna in the first place because I was a snow mage and she could refuel using my magic. Than, I'm not sure if that was mean of her to use me, or if it was just a sort of bonus that I was a snow wizard and she would have asked me to join up with her even if I wasn't a snow mage. Course I'll never know that one. Than Viper went and confused the heck out of me, and at the grand ball she just found me annoying." Eve rambled without thinking.

Ren started laughing.

"Man, have you been thinking about this since the last time you saw her or what?" He choked out between his laughter.

Eve rolled his eyes, "Sure, and you didn't think about Sherry for a whole year after the Nirvana incident." He said bluntly.

Ren shrugged as his laughter died away, "I'll admit it. Yes, I thought about her all the time! And look where it got me!" Ren exclaimed, throwing his arms out.

"Trapped with crazy woman that loves love?" Hibiki tried.

"About to break your back trying to keep it up when your in separate guilds?" Eve attempted.

Ren scowled, "Engaged to the girl of my dreams, anyone?"

"Oh yeah...right, that too." Hibiki and Eve said in harmony.

Ren grumbled something about his two best friends being total idiots before he pushed the doors wide open.

"We're b...ack!" Ren choked on his words when he saw the scene before him. Ichiyia, Master Bob, and most of the other oddest males of Blue Pegasus were drunk as could be, some were crumpled on the floor, others leaning heavily on the walls, and some were full passed out on the floor. Ichiyia was sprawled across a table in his several sizes to small black speedo, Master Bob was rather red in the face and clutching a bottle, swaying from side to side with a strange look in his eye.

"Hic! H-Hellooo boys, w-why hic! Don't you c-come jooooooin us?" Master Bob asked.

All of the Trimen began edging for the door.

"Sorry..." Hibiki began.

"...but we have a..." Ren continued.

"..job!" Eve finished.

"Yes! A job, a very important job we need to go do right now!" Ren said whilst elbowing Hibiki hard in the side.

"J-Job...right! One that we've been planning for months!" Eve stuttered as Master Bob stumbled over to them.

Hibiki crouched down behind Eve and Ren and quickly typed a few things into his archives.

"What's the j-job fooooor?" Master Bob slurred.

"It's...ummm..." Eve was lost.

"To investigate a suspected spot for a dark guild! Yes, that's it!" Hibiki exclaimed as he jumped up and turned his archive screen, which was displaying the quest.

"Welllllll oookey doookey! Be hic! Careful!" Master Bob choked as Ichiyia rolled over and snored, still donning his less than appropriate swim wear.

"Ok! Have fun here! Without us! Bye!"

The three of them had hightailed it out of the guild before things could get any weirder.

They ran down the street to their apartment.

"That was very, very strange." Hibiki stated bluntly.

"Yup."

"Agreed."

All three of them shuddered as they attempted to forever banish that horrible scene from their heads.

They headed back to their apartment, picked up their backpacks, still packed and ready because they'd only just returned from their last job. They headed back to a train station, and, less than an hour after return to their home, they were back on a train chugging off to another job.

"Well, I guess we're doing a job, than." Eve sighed.

"Please tell me you at least picked one that actually has a good reward." Ren begged.

"Let me check." Hibiki pulled back up his archive screen and tapped at the key screen for a moment.

"Holy..." Hibiki was at a loss for words.

"What?" Eve asked as he and Ren leaned closer.

"Guys, the reward for this quest is almost 10 million jewel."

"Holy crap!" His companions exclaimed in unison.

"That's a lot of money, must be a tough one." Ren stated.

"What is it, exactly?" Eve questioned as Hibiki read from the screen.

"Apparently, a billionaire purchased a summer home in the West Woodsy, and had gone to visit one of the villages, Woodsy Village, to be exact. He'd found a thirty five year old map in an antiques shop and bought it. It said that there was an old castle ruin hidden somewhere in the forest. He'd been curious, so he'd researched it. But thirty years ago it was as if the ruin had just dropped off the face of the earth, no exploder could find it, they'd head into the forest and suddenly become so turned around and confused that they'd have to return empty handed."

"Can't say I blame'em, remember when we went into the West Woodsy? Almost eight years to the day and I'm still not sure where the heck we'd ended up! West end, south end, we could have been in the wrong forest for all I know! That entire place just hurt my brain." Ren grumbled, recalling when they'd gone into the West Woodsy during the allied guild's battle against Nirvana.

Eve nodded in agreement, than got back on the original topic.

"So did he question any of the villagers?" The snow mage asked.

Hibiki nodded as he scrolled through the information screen he'd pulled up with his magic.

"Yeah, he asked as many people as he could, and none of the villagers will say a word about it. Apparently they all believe the ruin is noting but an old village myth, even for a myth, they all seem very hesitant to talk about it. Some downright ignored him when he brought up the old castle. The man's curiosity was piqued, so he requested for a group of wizards to go investigate it. It says here that he's done some independent research and discovered an area of the Woodsy that had so much magical power concentrated into it that it was the equivalent of the raw power it takes to fire the Eitherion cannon."

"Whoa! That's a lot of juice, and it's all in one spot?" Ren demanded.

"Yes." Hibiki confirmed.

"Even more so, it looks like the area is surrounded by an amount of protective magic, shield spells, draining magic, ruins, they've got it all. But they were all so well concealed it took the man months to discover that they were even there! There's something back there that someone doesn't want the world to know about."

Ren frowned, "Sounds like a dark guild to me." He said.

Hibiki nodded again, "I think I can open up a small passage through the ruins and shield spell with my archive as a hacking mechanism. I can also use a small charm spell I picked up to temporarily make us immune to the draining magic trap. Even so, we'll have to be incredibly careful, I say we go in under the cover of night."

"Great, a freaking confusing forest that's made to turn you around in so many circles you won't know which direction your even facing, a dark guild, and best of all we're going in at night! Whee, sounds like a blast!" Ren sighed, twirling his finger in the air.

"Well aren't you just a little ray of sunshine." Hibiki shot at Ren, giving him a sharp look.

Eve blinked, "Ren's right, it certainly sounds like a doozy, how far is it?"

"Seven hours straight trip." Hibiki sighed, "So get comfy."

As Ren claimed an entire bench to take a nap and Hibiki started to research the Woodsy, Eve began to think about something Rina had said to him last he'd seen her.

She'd said that she didn't want me riding on a train for seven hours just to visit them. She also said that 'the drawbridge will stay up, figuratively speaking, of course.' We're searching for a castle that the world supposedly forgot, castles have drawbridges and it's seven hours away. Nah, there's no way though, Rina living in a castle, I can't believe I even imagined that!

After that, Eve banished the thoughts from his head, and settled down for a long, long ride into the wilds of the West Woodsy.

I'm sure we all know by now what this 'dark guild' is. Is anybody else concerned for the Trimen's health? No? Oh well, bad for them.

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