Gathering Strength!

Enma smiled confidently, out of his weapon form as he looked down upon the Evil Human base he had just launched a full scale assault on. It was in his dearest desire to get in, grab the children and then leave, but he couldn't find them. Instead he found a bunch of sinners, Evil Humans, who deserved nothing more the gravest of all punishments. Death. Enma looked over at his partner.

His partner stood tall and looked very frail, like the slightest wind would knock him over despite the fact that he was the meister while Enma who had enough muscles for two men was the weapon. His partner had on a pair of short cargo pants as well as a T-shirt on and he looked very unprofessional in it, but that didn't matter to Enma or him for that matter. They had been partners ever since they had been admitted to the DWMA. They had stayed partner for one particular reason. They both wanted justice.

Outside of the school they had obtained real jobs as killing Evil Human only took up a part of their time and the DWMA's paychecks were getting smaller and smaller apparently. They both became high-class lawyers in order to further halt the flow of injustice. Of course, they both had slight problems in the courtroom. Enma had anger management problems and had been sent to a mandatory class several times, while his partner, Emilio, had had his tongue cut out when he was a child and couldn't speak in any human tongue. His limitations were grunts, sighs, and the occasional yawn. Of course, justice didn't words, just an iron fist which Emilio was more then happy to supply.

Admittedly, they were both enjoying finding and beating the Evil Humans to a pulp a lot more then they would ever have if they were to look for the kids. Enma's power wasn't made for recon it was made for destroying things.

However, they were sent here by Lord Death to find the students not to hunt Evil Humans so that was their goal. They were implying a hit-and-run strategy to bring the numbers down right now and hoped that that would increase the student's chances of survival till they were found.

Enma spoke up and broke the tension, "you alright now, Emilio?" he asked. Emilio's cut-off tongue had resulted in bad health throughout his entire life including a frightfully short period of action. He had to take a break every 15 or so minutes in order to recover from the shortness of breath and painful throbbing in his extremities. Emilio sighed and shook his head. Enma sighed in response and leaned back, resting his body as well. He was ready for it mentally and he was having a hard time holding it back, Emilio wanted to rush in and take care of them as much Enma did, but he couldn't. They would just have to believe that the students could hold on for another couple of minutes.

(-With Michael and Ash-)

They had taken a quick break. Pressed themselves up against the wall and they were both frozen in unison. Vigrid was standing on the other side of the wall, over the dead Evil Human like a hunter would stand over his latest prize buck. They felt like they should twist their heads around and look, but neither could. They had just watched this man easily kill someone on HIS team without a second thought. The power that he had shown dwarfed even Lord Death during his exercises, admittedly Lord Death probably withheld some powers. It was still a frightening thing to think. That someone they were planning on taking down could do that.

It certainly put a damper on their plans. Honestly, though, Ash's thought wasn't on taking him down. He pushed that thought down into the recesses of his mind. He didn't need that thought at the moment. He just needed to focus on moving. His idea body felt like it was encased in a block of ice. He felt frozen. He wasn't sure if the air conditioning was just turned up to make polar bears happy or something else, but either way he felt Vigrid's madness wavelength-like aura creep around his body and hold him still. It crept around his body like a snake and held him there.

If Vigrid knew he was here and turned down that hallway...he shuddered at the thought, which was apparently the only movement he could do. He wouldn't be able to run away. Ash tried to open his mouth and whisper something to Michael, hoping that a light conversation would take the edge off, but his mouth was welded shut. He couldn't pry his lips apart for the life of him. Just another part of his body that felt the icy aura of Vigrid.

Michael felt differently. He didn't feel the icy cold aura like Ash did. He felt something else. He felt the second aura that Vigrid commanded. Vigrid was a man bathed in blood, he possessed the aura Ash felt for a long time. The aura to instill fear into people. Before Marburg's fight with Lord Death that was another one of his famous weapons, a great way to halt war. However, that aura was no longer the only thing Vigrid had developed. Vigrid was no longer someone who wanted to stop wars and freeze them in their tracks, he wanted to cause them. And this second aura was just that.

Michael felt himself growing delirious. The nervousness that should've been driving his system was being washed away. He felt himself becoming more and more anxious. It was like there was something that perched itself on his shoulder like a miniature devil. Ordinarily, they should've been accompanying angel on his other shoulder, but that was gone. The devil scared it away with its low deep voice.

The devil was quite a talkative fellow as he whispered into Michael's ears. "Kill." The devil didn't seem to be the talkative type as it was just that word or variations of it that it said, "kill, murder, destroy, kill, kill, kill." He didn't want to kill and he resisted, but it was like driving and having kids in the back seat, screeching about 'pizza' and despite your shouting or reasoning...they keep saying it. Eventually you give in. That was what Michael felt. He felt his carefully constructed defense against such urges being broken down. They were being destroyed by the words ringing through Michael's head. It was slowly starting to overpower his reasoning and take control of the wheel. He felt like twisting around the corner and charging at Vigrid as weaponless as he was. Finally the devil stopped talking.

Michael collapsed onto the floor with a gasp of breath. He didn't realize how tightly he was clenching his fist and jaw. He looked over at Ash, who shared a similar look of relief. He wasn't sure if Ash felt a similar sensation or something else. They just stayed slumped there against the wall, trying to rationalize their own conditions.

Ash, who had frozen in fear, was trying to calm himself down and remind himself that he had seen several Evil Humans get butchered in cold blood...admittedly he had done some of that himself. He couldn't believe that he could freeze in fear. It was his plan to take out that monster and when he found himself face-to-face with it, he froze? That seemed like a plan that had one giant gaping hole in it now. How could he possibly find a way around it? A way not to fear immobilized by fear. And by the stunned silence of his two allies, Xander and Michael, he assumed that neither of them would be capable of giving him the answer he desired.

Michael dealt with the problem of rationalizing his way out of feeling like a murderer. His heart had been unfortunately removed when he became a golem, but if he still had it he was sure it would be beating faster then it ever should. And at what? The thought of murder. Not even the murder of someone who deserved it. Just the cold-blood thought of murder! He supposed it was the same thing most serial killers feel, a rising urge from the desire and then the sudden thrill of the action. He looked over Ash and temporary wondered if that urge came up again, who would he take it out? Vigrid, Ash, or possibly even May? He let out a deep breath as once more he tried to calm and collect his nerves.

Gathering his little remaining sanity, Michael leaned over towards the corner and made one final check for Vigrid. A brief sigh of relief came as he noticed it was completely void of the monster. He highly doubted they could take him on in their current state. Michael tried to stand up, but as he had assumed his mind was still fried and made his legs wobble as if they were made of jelly instead of metal. Ash had similar problems with standing, but finally with one final push they both found themselves on their feet and wanting to leave this god forsaken place even more. And with their mission almost accomplished it looked like they may just have their wish granted.

"Michael!" shouted Semper as he caught up to them. Michael flinched as his name being shouted. He still hadn't calmed down, but it looked like Ash was faring far worse as he had jumped up and could nearly touch the ceiling. "What's up with the hold-up?" asked Semper, putting on a friendly face as he approached the golem. Mischa followed behind him, but she didn't seem nearly as interested in what was going on as Semper.

"Sorry. We just saw Vigrid," said Michael as he tried to explain their jumpiness, "it looked like he killed an Evil Human, but we didn't get here fast enough to see." Michael had a mixture of emotion as he looked at their new rescuers. He was grateful that it was no longer three students with two weapons trying on this hopeless rescue mission, but he had to admit two more students didn't quite feel like the cavalry of hope...it was like another small drop in nearly empty bucket, but nonetheless it was a drop more of hope he had then before.

Semper smiled, "great! Hey, if he wants to kill his own troops I say we let him." It was a moment of good news for him. This actually made his job easier, rather than trying to defeat all of them himself. A dead Evil Human just meant that he got lucky. Semper moved forward, but as soon as he got into the hallway he froze. He felt the lingering madness wavelength and felt like he was instantly being slammed downwards to the ground. It was a simply show of his strong will that he didn't plummet to his knees and freeze. "Stay there," muttered Semper to the rest of the group. They barely heard him, but they managed to obey him, staying in the adjacent hallway.

Semper struggled back over to the hallway and finally felt his breath returning. "If its like this minutes after he left, what is it like when he was standing here?" Michael and Ash looked at each other and felt the momentary fear well up, but they shook their heads and managed a shrug.

Semper felt a brief flash of anger that they didn't warn him about it. That they let HIM be the guinea pig and test the waters while they stayed back. He was annoyed at the thought and leaned back against the wall trying to recover the little breath he had.

Mischa was tempted and didn't quite believe Semper's overzealous actions and took a step forward. She felt the pulling force on her foot as soon as it stepped into the hallway. Her eyes went wide as she yanked her foot back. She looked over at the rest of them. Michael and Ash shrugged, they had warned her to a certain degree, but Semper chuckled that he wasn't the only one that got such a harsh punishment. "I guess we'll just wait for the rest of the group...if they survive long enough to get here."

Oops! I uploaded this chapter yesterday, but I forgot to actually update the story. This actually happens a lot.