Yukino, Lector, and Frosch were silently going further in to the cavern from the back entrance. The pointy stalactites and stalagmites were making it hard for the exceeds to fly around. The pathway wasn't well traveled for a reason: it was a dangerous and precarious, complete with a steadily filling pool. Had it not been for the exceeds, Yukino would have had to turn back when the pathway was blocked.
They came to a point where there was a very tight passage where a rock slide had fallen down, leaving a very thin area above the rocks to slide through. Lector and Frosch managed to fit in, but Yukino was having difficulty. She joked, "Maybe I shouldn't have eaten so many sweets the past couple weeks." Lector said, "Don't be silly, Yukino. You're tiny." Frosch added, "Fro thinks so too." Yukino may have been petite, but it was a struggle for her to slide in. As she looked behind her, she became concerned. She saw the area behind them was flooding. Apparently, the rock slide had made an unintentional dam. The water was flooding the pathway behind her. If she didn't get out of there, she might die. She felt her hips get stuck. Frosch and Lector pulled on her arms. Lector said, "Suck in your gut!" Yukino bit out, "I'm not fat! This is just ridiculously tight!"
Then she felt her key ring rubbing against her hip. She almost dislocated her arm to grab her keys from her hip. She pulled the key Libra, and called it. Libra showed up, asking, "Can I do something for you?" Yukino struggled, saying, "Can you use gravity on specific rocks? We need to move some of them so I can move. I'm stuck here." Libra made some of the rocks lighter. Lector and Frosch took the specially light rocks away. Yukino said, "Thank you!" Libra said, "You're welcome." Libra went back to the Celestial Realm. Water rushed through the holes made by moving the rocks. Yukino looked at the exceeds and said, "Thank you, everyone. Let's run out of here."
As they ran away from the incoming water, they were at a fork in the path. One path went upwards; the other went further downhill. Yukino looked distressed, as she saw water flooding the path. She said, "Ethan told us to go downhill, but if we do, we'll drown!" Lector and Frosch didn't wait a second. They picked her up and flew toward the uphill path. Yukino looked up at the two exceeds. Lector looked serious. He said, "We'll figure this out, Yukino. We'll find Sting and Rogue, even if we have to go on an alternative path. We're strong." Frosch said, "Fro thinks so too. We'll find another way." Yukino had misgivings, but she knew this was all they could do. She said, "All right. Let's see where this leads."
They soared uphill, until the path lead to a huge chasm. At the bottom were Natsu's, Sting's, and Rogue's cages. Yukino nodded to the two exceeds with a serious face. She quietly had Lector fly her down to the cage. Sting and Rogue immediately recognized their friends' scents. Yukino gracefully landed in front of Sting's cage door. She called Polaris to break the locks on all the cages. She took a pin from her hair and picked the lock on Sting's shackles. Sting immediately hugged her. She blushed as she looked up at him. She asked, "Sting?" He whispered, "You are a sight for sore eyes!" He then passionately kissed her. He admitted, "I thought I would never see you again." She was dazed for a second, then said, "Uh, likewise." She asked, "How come you couldn't get out?" Sting explained, "There's some sort of magic depleting magic in our cages and these shackles." She saw Polaris was done breaking the locks. She said, "Thank you, Polaris. I'll deal with this." Polaris went back to the Celestial Realm. Yukino noticed Sting looked weak. She said, "Let me help you out of the cage." As soon as they got out of the cage, he smiled and hugged Yukino again. "Thank you, Yukino."
Lector soared over and hugged Sting. Sting was so happy to see he was alive, he had tears in his eyes. Sting cried, "I thought they killed you. I was so destroyed inside." Lector just cried in his arms.
Yukino picked the shackles' locks in both Rogue's and Natsu's cages. Yukino noticed Rogue and Natsu were weakened, as well. She assisted Rogue out of his cage. She asked, "Didn't they feed you?" Rogue said, "We've mostly gotten water and a piece of bread a day for a week." Yukino grumbled, "These people are so cruel!" She assisted Rogue over to Frosch. Rogue smiled with tears in his eyes. "Frosch! I thought they killed you. I'm so happy to see you." Frosch sobbed in Rogue's arms. Frosch choked out, "Fro is happy to see you, too." Yukino whispered, "Lector, Frosch! I need you to fly us up onto that ledge." Lector silently picked up Sting and soared up to their previous pathway. Frosch followed with Rogue in tow. Lector went down to get Natsu. Frosch was struggling to let go of Rogue. Rogue whispered, "I'm fine, buddy. Just get Yukino, and we can get out of here." Natsu was brought up. Rogue said, "Just get her, before we're caught." Frosch reluctantly let go of Rogue and flew down for Yukino.
As soon as Lector got Natsu up top, a guard yelled, "The first generation slayers have escaped! Warn the rest!" Yukino hid as well as she could. More men ran into the room. The guard saw her white coat, and yelled "Intruder!" Yukino ran as fast as she could, but the guard grabbed her by the hair. She yelped in pain. The guard examined her and whispered in her ear, "And look what we have here! Another one of those virgins from that Sorcerer Weekly article. Perfect! That blonde celestial mage escaped, but we won't make that same mistake, will we? We'll find her soon, too. You both will be perfect as the ultimate sacrifices for our ritual." She gritted her teeth in pain, saying, "I don't know what this ritual you're talking about is, but I have no intention of being your virgin sacrifice." She then stepped on his foot and elbowed him in the groin. As he howled in pain, Yukino sprinted as fast as she could to avoid him and the other men. Frosch soared quickly to grab her. One of the men almost got a hold of Yukino's coat, but she roundhouse kicked him in the face. The man growled, "Get her!"
Up on the ledge, the men stood speechless as Yukino was fighting for her freedom. Their hearing definitely picked up on 'virgin sacrifice', so they were angry these people seemed to target their friends as well. All three men were frustrated about their weakened states: the dehydration, the starvation, and the magic depletion had taken their toll. They could barely stand, much less use their magical attacks. As a man got close to Yukino to grabbing her arm, Sting screamed, "Fuck it! I can't let her be a sitting duck. White Dragon's Claw!" A bright light blinded the men and blasted them to the side. Sting fell on the ground, completely weakened. Frosch quickly picked Yukino up and flew her up to the ledge. She said, "Let's go! We'll try to help you guys." They ran back down the path.
When they got to the fork, it was already flooding. Yukino said, "Guys, we have a problem. The area we started in is completely flooded. We can't escape the way we came in. There is another pathway, but I'm worried we'll drown if we go that way too." Natsu said, "We'll have to chance it. Thanks, by the way. You and Luce are the best. I'm worried about them saying Luce was captured. I'm just glad she escaped." Rogue was concerned. He asked, "What was that virgin sacrifice stuff? I feel like this group is getting more and more evil as we speak." Frosch said, "Fro thinks so too." Rogue smiled gently at his sweet exceed. He hugged him. He reiterated, "Fro, I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried about you." Fro looked at him with tears in his eyes; he said, "Fro thought you were...Fro was scared for you too."
As they ran to the fork, they turned left. They ran into a low tunnel, the water already up to their knees. Yukino gasped. She said, "It's already flooded!" Sting said, "It's alright. We can swim when we run out of ground to run on. We don't have time to think about it." All four mages swam in the flooded tunnel. The two exceeds floated above. As they approached the end of the tunnel, Natsu saw the sheer number of guards approaching at the end. "Shit! They're here!" he yelled. They turned around and swam back as fast as possible. Most of the guards swam after them. Natsu could feel the splashes of the guards just behind them. He yelled, "They're almost catching up!"
When most of the guards were in the water, Yukino said, "I've got a plan. Just get to the path." They managed to get to the path and were running. Yukino pulled Libra from her keychain. She looked at her colleagues with a serious face. She warned, "Guys, I need your trust. Please, all of you, hang onto something. I want you to eventually make a chain together. In the meantime, hang on with all of your strength." Sting and Rogue immediately understood, but Natsu was confused. Sting sternly said, "Natsu. Trust her." Natsu held onto a very heavy rock. Yukino called out, "Open the Gate of the Heavenly Scales! Libra!" When Libra showed up, she commanded, "Libra, I need you to give us zero gravity." Libra answered, "Understood."
Immediately, everyone felt weightless. Natsu was shocked when he felt he had to hold onto the rock; he was floating in the air. He noticed that Yukino wasn't affected by the gravity alteration, but everyone else was subject to the zero gravity conditions. The guards in the flooded tunnel were alarmed as the water splashed up with them into an enormous liquid bubble. Their faces showed horror, as they struggled to get air. Some of them were showing signs they were drowning in the bubble. Yukino grabbed the weightless slayers and exceeds in a chain and ran by the people in the bubble. They had gotten to the other side of the tunnel. When most of the men appeared to be close to be drowning, she let gravity go back to normal. They all fell with a thump. The water splashed dangerously on the struggling guards. Natsu looked back to see the men desperately attempting to escape the swirling, violent water. Coughing and hacking could be heard echoing in the tunnel as Yukino lead the men and their exceeds down the corridor.
As they ran down the hall, they could still hear the guards struggling to breathe. Natsu said, "Remind me not to piss off Luce as much. If she can do that kind of stuff, I'm thinking she could totally kill me. Good job, Yukino! I have to fight you when we get some free time." Sting rolled his eyes at Natsu. Sting mentioned, "Yukino, I've never seen zero gravity's effects on water before. That was awesome!" Rogue added, "And terrifying." Frosch said, "Fro thinks so too." Yukino sheepishly responded, "It was the only plan I could think of to get past the guards."