Hey Guys,

I have not abandoned this story.

I'm just really super busy in the summer.

Dragonboating sucks up most of my time. I didn't even get to level during exp event.

Well for most of the event I was in Vegas. But when I wasn't in Vegas I was too busy paddling.

Or I was out...

Much easier for me to read in the summer then it is to write...that and I can read at work much easier then I can write lol

I have ideas for the rest of the story. Just need to get it out...hopefully I can get more writing done next week

After the dead branch encounter in South Prontera, Hotaru would go and visit Mikan every few days.

It's probably due to the fact that Mikan hasn't been going out with them much to explore and train since Natsume was at her house. She didn't feel that it was appropriate to leave him all alone in her house while she went out. She tried to convince him to join them training on several occasions but it always failed.

Even Ruka tried to convince him to go with them. But one knowing glare from Natsume made him fall quiet. Hotaru became even more suspicious because of that and decided to go over to check up on Mikan every so often.

The only places Natsume is willing to go were the hospital and the garden. Sometimes Ruka or Tsubasa would go with Mikan and Natsume on their hospital visit but no one knew about their visits to the Garden.

Aoi's situation had greatly improved since the first time her brother decided to visit her.

She's now doing some physio to help recover any strength lost during her captivity and inactivity while she was deathly sick on the bed.

She's almost ready to be released by the hospital. Once release she will attend Novice school. Just as the General has promised, she will be looked after at Novice school so no one could kidnap her again.

All other kids rescued from the house that night have been release back to their families. The assassin guild has sent members of their guild to guard them invisibly. They were hoping that this would keep the kids safe and catch the criminals in the act if they were to come after them again.

Today, Hotaru came to visit Mikan with Yuu and Ruka. Mikan entertained them in the living room serving them tea and biscuits while they told her about their most recent training.

"You should have came with us," Yuu told her, "We could have really used a Priestess."

"You owe me 10000 zeny for making me buy all those healing supplies." Hotaru told her.

Mikan looks at Hotaru and gave her a pretend hurt look, "What am I? A giant White Potion?" (White Potions are the strongest out of all the life healing potions. Since Priestess can heal I'm basically comparing her to being a potion :P )

"Sounds about right." Hotaru replied.

"You're so mean Hotaru!!" Mikan wailed.

While they were talking in the living room, Natsume was sitting up in a tree in the backyard looking at them. How he wish he could join them and have a normal life. But because of the whole kidnapping, his life has been turned upside down. He had been forced into the job class and became an assassin. He was forced to kill and steal to protect his little sister. But no matter what the cause was for his actions, he still did the deeds. How he wish he never had to do any of that stuff.

He snapped out of his thoughts as he heard footsteps walking towards him. He glanced down below to find Tsubasa walking towards him.

"Hey," Tsubasa greeted him.

"Hn," he acknowledged the crusader.

"You need to come with me to investigate Glast Heim. There have been reports of something strange happening there. We want you to come with us to investigate with us to identify anything that might be connected to the guild."

"How the heck am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, if they've been doing their weird rituals maybe they had brought some of the artifices you have taken. We probably don't have an account of everything that has been stolen that could be link. Also, if we're very lucky, maybe someone from the guild may still be lurking around."

"I don't have equipment fit to fight in that place."

"Don't worry, we have all that taken care of."

"I guess I don't have much of a choice do I." Natsume said reluctantly.

"You do, but we're short on people right now and could really use all the help we can get. We've even been recruiting adventurers as volunteers for easier missions that doesn't need to be assign through their respective guilds." Tsubasa informed him.

"So it's just me and you then." Natsume asks.

"Misaki will come along too. It'll be better if we can get real support but her spells will be enough to make things easier. At least we don't have to pay for our own supplies so we can get more and better supplies for the trip."

"Hn."

"Alright, then lets get going. We'll go back to the castle and get you geared up and supply ourselves and head out."

Natsume didn't bother answering Tsubasa this time around. He just jumped down from the tree and walked up to him.

"Natsume!" They heard a voice call out as they were about to leave the backyard.

Natsume turned around to find the brown hair priestess standing behind the bushes.

"Where do you think you're going! You're under my care right now. You can't just leave without telling me!" Mikan exclaimed. "Tsubasa-senpai, do you really think it'll be ok for Natsume to go with you to Glast Heim right now. I mean, he just got better not long ago."

"Ah, so you heard us talking." Tsubasa commented while scratching his head.

"Um, kind of. I saw you out here so I thought I would come to say hi. I don't know what made me hide when I saw you guys talking."

"How much did you hear?" Tsubasa questioned her.

"Something about investigating Glast Heim. You're short on people right now and are recruiting. Also you don't have a healer going with you! It's just you two and Misaki senpai. Do you really think that's a good idea?! I mean that's a really dangerous place!!" Mikan kept on babbling on.

Good, she didn't hear about the guild Tsubasa thought.

"Why don't I come with you as the healer?" Mikan suggested.

Natsume became a statue at that suggestion and Tsubasa hesitated to answer.

"Um, I don't know about that Mikan. Like you said, it is a dangerous place. You just changed into a priestess recently. You might need further training before you go there." Tsubasa tried to convince her not to go.

"I've already trained there as an acolyte! I'll be fine. Plus I need any extra training I can get. If Natsume is going then so will I." Mikan declared, "And even if you don't let me come with you, I'll go on my own. I have a warp to Glast Heim so I can go by myself if I wanted to."

Tsubasa sighed in defeat, "I would rather you come with us then to go alone. Who knows what you might find if you're there by yourself. Or who might find you." He muttered the last part softly so only Natsume heard.

"Then we shall come too!" Ruka spoke up as he, Hotaru and Yuu stood up from their hiding spot behind the bushes beside Mikan.

"We can help you with your investigation. It'll just be like extra training for us in Glast Heim. We're quite familiar with that place since we've trained there before." Yuu told Tsubasa.

Tsubasa sighed, "Alright, Natsume and I will go get gears and supplies. Why don't you guys get geared up and meet back here at Mikan's house. We'll warp out once everyone is properly geared and supplied."

The four of them agreed with Tsubasa's suggestion. Mikan casted Agility Up on everyone so they can get to their destinations faster.

Once everyone was properly prepared, they met up at Mikan's house.

Mikan opened up a warp to Glast Heim and everyone went in.

Once they were there, Tsubasa led the investigation. They searched various places in Glast Heim and noticed the increase in the number of monsters. They couldn't help but wonder what was disturbing the undead so much to make them so restless.

After investigating the surface area, they decided to go deeper into the basement of Glast Heim to check up on the monsters that weren't undead. As they battle their way through the graveyard area towards the door for the basement, a loud menacing voice shock the place.

"You! How dare you people disturb my domain?" The voice accused.

Mikan was the first to turn to where the voice came from and gasped.

The group had feared the worst when they first heard the voice and the gasp from Mikan just confirmed their doom.

The Dark Lord was floating towards them giving off a very dark aura. Tsubasa quickly went from his position in the front of the group to the side where the Dark Lord was coming from to shield his party.

"We're not trying to do anything. We just want to pass by." Misaki replied.

"Lairs. You're in alliance with those fools that came earlier. Thinking you can over throw the current dark lords by striking a deal with the devil himself. You really think he'll honour his side of the agreement? Foolish mortals."

"What are you talking about? I thought the only other people that were here before were the ones that reported the disturbance in the number of monsters." Yuu spoke up.

Tsubasa said nothing since he did not want them to get sucked into the Army's business.

"It's too late for lies. I shall destroy you before you can complete the deal with him." Dark Lord announced as he summoned his minions to attack.

"Everyone stay behind me." Tsubasa yelled at the group as the Dark Illusions advance towards them.

Yuu casted several firewalls in front of the Dark Illusions and Hotaru started enchanting her spell for Storm Gust.

Mikan worked hard on casting supportive spells on everyone while Natsume took care of any random monsters that got too close to the party.

The violent ice storm attacked the advancing Illusions and pushed them back a little but was not able to kill or freeze any of the Illusions. Once the storm passed, Hotaru immediately began casting again.

"At a time like this, I wish Koko was here." Yuu muttered under his breath as he casted several more firewalls to slow down the Illusions from reaching them.

"Yeah, Magic Strings would be awesome right now." Ruka agreed while he ran out to where Tsubasa was and placed traps in front of him.

Once the traps were place, they tried to fall back towards the door for the basement.

But Dark Lord noticed their motive and summoned his minions back to his side. This time, he went forward to attack the group himself.

Hotaru's Storm Gust attacked him but he was able to pass through the storm without getting knocked around like his Minions.

Once he was close enough to the group, Tsubasa rode up to him on his PecoPeco while the others attacked from a distance.

Arrows flew and magic rained down from the ski. The battle was intense and Mikan was struggling to support the group and keep Tsubasa alive.

Just as things were about to go down hill, a new voice could be heard, "Magnus Exorcismus." The area underneath Dark Lord and his minions lit up in Red similar to how Sanctuary would look like except bigger. The Dark Lord stuttered in his steps and howled in pain. At the same time, magic coming from Hotaru and Yuu rained down on the enemy as well.

"Misaki now!" Tsubasa shouted.

Misaki nodded and gathered all her spiritual into her right fist that was holding her mace. She ran straight into Dark Lord and jumped up high in the air.

"Guillotine Fist", she shouted as her mace filled with all her spiritual energy made contact with his head.

A sickening crack could be heard and the Dark Lord fell down to his knees.

"Fools. I will be back. Even the devil can't stop that from happening." Dark Lord cursed as he faded into the air.

Once he vanished into thin air, the group collectively let out the breath of air they have been holding in.

Footsteps could be heard as someone approached them.

A male priest came into view, "Are you guys alright?" He asked.

Mikan, who was busy tending to Tsubasa's wounds looked up from her job as she heard the familiar voice.

"Yes, thank you for your help." Yuu replied.

"Aki-kun?" Mikan said softly.

"Mi-Chan?" Aki questioned when he turned to face her.

"Aki-kun!!" Mikan exclaimed cheerfully and tackled him in a hug.

"Mi-Chan! When did you change into a priestess? Weren't you supposed to call me when you change so I could do the trail with you?" Aki asked while he inspected her new uniform.

"Eh, heehee" Mikan giggled with scratching her head. "I kind of changed jobs unexpectedly. I mean, I've wanted to changed for a long time but Narumi-Sensei said I wasn't ready. And when I was finally ready I got so excited and changed right away without telling anyone."

"I guess it's a good thing you're a priestess already. I don't think you guys would have lasted very long if you were still an acolyte." He commented and patted her head.

"Thanks for saving us Aki-kun!" Mikan squealed and hugged his arm.

Unknown to her, two boys in her party are glaring daggers at the poor boy while the rest of them snicker at their reaction.

"So what were you doing here?" Mikan asked.

"I was training in the previous level. I just finished mastering my new spell Magnus Exorcismus and I wanted to test it out. But while I was levelling I heard Dark Lord's voice so I decided to come check it out. I guess it's a good thing I did too. You guys looked like you were in trouble." Aki replied.

"Yeah, it seems to be more powerful and scary then the last time I saw him." Mikan commented.

"You saw it before?" Ruka asked with alarm.

"Yup. I was training here with Narumi-Sensei before I changed into a priestess. When I last saw it, it didn't speak or anything like that. And it didn't have that heavy dark aura around it. I wonder what it was talking about."

"Yes, I would like to know what I was being accused of." Hotaru added.

"Why don't we head back now? I should probably go report this incident." Tsubasa suggested.

The group nodded in agreement and Mikan opened up a portal to Prontera.

Once the group was in Prontera, Tsubasa and Misaki bid the group goodbye to go and report the incident. The rest of the group lingered around chatting away. Mikan and Aki decided to go to a near by café for dinner together so they could catch up with each other.

While Mikan was busy chatting with Aki while they walked, Natsume and Ruka silently followed behind them watching Aki's every move.

Hotaru saw this and dragged Yuu along as she smelt money in the making.

Thanks for all your support

Please review so I know someone is still reading this

I think we have a couple more chapters to go...i might be able to wrap it up soon

umesakura - thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you like the story
yuuki36 - The Absymal Knight was summoned by a dead branch minori13 - heehee Here's Aki-kun again:)

o0fuYuHAnAsHIrAZuKI0o - I do with Dancer had more to wear...I have a Gypsy and I'm quite glad she has...well...sleeves lol
HyuugaYingLang - Sorry it took so long..summer is busy :(
Endless Question- Thanks for always reviewing :)