Here's the next chapter, guys! I hope you all enjoy!

Foster and Meredy had finished tending to Sakura's wounds, though she was still sleeping from utilizing her new Poison Forest Dragon powers.

"That should take care of her injuries, but she used up way too much magic energy in that last fight." Foster said.

"All she needs right now is a bit of rest." Meredy said.

"Sakura!"

Foster and Meredy looked over and saw Flora flying right toward them.

"You!" Flora shouted as she pointed at Foster, recognizing him from a few months back.

"You're welcome." Foster said. "Your friend will be fine. She just needs sleep."

"Let me guess, you're here to take out Silent Orochi?" Flora asked.

"Yes." Meredy nodded. "Jellal and Ultear went ahead to find the Guild Master, Vance Victor."

"And who are you, young lady?" Flora asked.

"I'm a member of Crime Sorcière, just like Foster. My name is Meredy."

"Hmm…" Flora hummed as she examined Meredy for a few seconds. "Foster, is she the reason you had us-"

Foster quickly grabbed Flora by her mouth and ran off into the thick of the forest with Meredy staring at their direction with a blank expression. When they were out of sight, Foster had let go of Flora's mouth and released her.

"Look, don't bring that up in front of her." Foster whispered. "It's supposed to be a surprise."

"But it's been three months." Flora whispered back. "When are you going to give it to her?"

"I've tried that, but there's just one problem." Foster replied. "Ultear. She's like a mother to Meredy and I've told her about it, but she won't allow me."

"Foster! Are you okay?" Meredy called from where she was.

"Please don't mention this to Meredy." Foster whispered back to Flora before leaving the bush and waving to Meredy. "We're fine! Nothing to worry about."

Meanwhile, Spiral was still having a tough time fighting Morticia.

"Bone Boomerang!"

Morticia sent a bone hurling and spinning toward Spiral, but Spiral rolled under the bone and it flew right past him. As Spiral got up, he heard something getting closer and as he turned he slipped and fell to the ground as the bone came flying back and Morticia caught it with her hand.

"I'm impressed." Morticia said. "You're lasting much longer than before. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for your comrades."

"Don't underestimate my friends." Spiral said.

"Silent Orochi makes up one of the most powerful Dark Guilds in Fiore." Morticia stated. "We may not be as strong as the original Baram Alliance, but we're strong enough to be suitable replacements."

Suddenly, spikes of greenish-blue ice formed from underneath Morticia and she jumped out of the way as the ice spikes formed a tower where she was just standing.

"How did you summon that ice without casting?!" Morticia asked.

"It wasn't him." A voice spoke up.

"Wait a minute…" Spiral muttered. "I recognize that voice…"

"It's been a while, Spiral." The new person said as they approached the two. It was revealed to be Lyon Vastia of Lamia Scale.

"You're from Lamia Scale!" Spiral said. "What are you doing here?"

"Blaise was concerned about you." Lyon answered. "So she called a few of her allies to help out. Honestly, if she didn't mention Silent Orochi none of us would be here to help."

"What do you mean by that?" Spiral asked.

Back where Jason and Xyla were fighting, their battle seemed to be going nowhere. Jason kept throwing out his wind attacks at Xyla, but she kept her distance and dodged every single one of his attacks.

*How the hell can she keep reading my attacks?* Jason thought to himself.

*Mind Link Complete.* Xyla's voice rang in his head.

Jason looked at Xyla and it appeared she did not move her mouth except for a single smirk.

*The reason I'm able to dodge your attacks is because of my Mind Link Magic.* Xyla's thoughts reverberated through Jason's head. *I can connect my mind with that of my target and I have access to every single one of your thoughts in addition to sharing any thoughts I want with you.*

*Crap!* Jason thought.

*Let me prove just how much of your thoughts I can read.* Xyla continued sending her thoughts into Jason. *Let's see… Interesting, so you like little girl?*

*No, I don't!* Jason thought with an irritated expression on his face. *That was her from over 6 years ago!*

*Apparently, she vanished and you've been waiting all this time for her return. How romantic, it makes me want to puke.*

Something in Jason snapped and he shot a gust of wind from his arm that moved so fast that Xyla didn't have enough time to react and was blown right into a tree.

*Looks like I struck a nerve.* Xyla thought as she stood up, still sending her thoughts to Jason. *But I can delve even deeper than that, right into your heart. You've been showing off this woman just to get your family off your back. Your mind sees her as an ally and a friend you know you can rely on, but your heart seems to think a bit differently.*

*I don't like where this is going.* Jason thought.

Suddenly, a black current blew Xyla right through the tree, causing the tree to fall over and crash to the ground.

"What… just happened?" Jason asked.

Jason looked to where the black current came from and saw a girl a few years younger than him with pink hair.

"Are you all right?" She asked as she walked over to Jason.

"She hasn't tried to attack me even once, so I'm just a little low on magic energy." Jason replied. "Thanks for helping me out there, Miss…"

"I'm Chelia Blendy. I came here with Lyon and Jura per Blaise's request."

"Master Blaise sent you?" Jason asked.

Before any explanations could be given, Xyla ran up to them and tried to claw at Jason with her nails. Jason grabbed Chelia and rolled out of the way of Xyla's attack.

"I think I get your strategy now!" Jason said. "You link your mind with your opponent's so you can read and dodge their every move. Then once they've depleted their magic energy you go in for the kill. Then again, that's the only other strategy you can employ because your physical abilities are well below average. I know because your last attempt to take us down was one of the most flawed attacks I've ever seen."

Jason's deduction seemed to have angered Xyla.

"Damn you!" Xyla growled. "DAMN YOU!"

"Zephyr Snare!"

*I'll just read his mind and dodge his attacks again!* Xyla thought.

As Xyla tried to read Jason's mind again, images of the Water Dragon Oceari and Jason being experimented rushed through her head.

*What the hell is that?!* Xyla thought, completely frozen from the shock caused by the viewing of those traumatic images.

Jason surrounded his right arm in gusts of wind and slammed it into the ground. Then Xyla became trapped by a tornado and was stuck in her spot.

"Chelia, will you do the honors?" Jason asked.

"Gladly." Chelia answered as she stepped forward. "Sky God Bellow!"

Chelia shot a breath of black wind at the tornado and when the winds died down and the dust settled, Xyla was both dizzy and unconscious.

"We did it!" Chelia exclaimed as she jumped for joy.

"Thanks, Chelia." Jason said before sighing and sitting on the ground. "But I used too much magic during that fight. I could really use a break. By the way, you mentioned that Blaise asked you to come here?"

"Ah, yes! I almost forgot!" Chelia responded. "Blaise told us that one of her wizards was picking a fight with Silent Orochi and asked us to bring him back. I didn't think that there would be any fighting involved."

"I'm sorry. My friend wanted revenge for what Silent Orochi did to his hometown when he was young. My other guild mates came to bring him back, but he's dead set on this. Anyway, your magic intrigues me."

"I use Sky God Slayer Magic."

"… Heheh, I know you use a different magic, but you remind me of someone I used to know."

"You look pretty exhausted. I'll keep watch for any more wizards while you rest up."

"Thanks." Jason said as he lied down on the ground and closed his eyes.

Spiral and Lyon managed to deal quite a bit of damage to Morticia through their combined teamwork.

"You're a lot more powerful than I thought you'd be." Lyon said to Spiral. "Almost makes me wish you had joined Lamia Scale instead."

"I appreciate your assistance in this fight." Spiral said.

"The one you should be thanking is your Guild Master." Lyon said.

"Huh?"

"Pay attention!" Morticia shouted.

"You've pretty much lost this fight!" Spiral said. "Just give up while you still can!"

"You should be the ones giving up!" Morticia said. "I still have one more ace up my sleeve!" She crossed her arms together. "Remains of the departed, I call upon thee to my aid! Bone Army!"

Hundreds of thousands of bones rose up from the ground and several different kinds merged together until Spiral and Lyon were surrounded by an army of skeletal warriors.

"This is my ultimate spell!" Morticia said from behind her wall of skeletons. "Feel the wrath of my thousand undead soldiers!"

Spiral slashed one of the skeleton soldiers to pieces with his ice sword, but it rebuilt itself just as quickly as he had disassembled it.

"Damn, these things aren't going to stop as easily as I thought they'd be!" Spiral grunted. "Lyon, use any one of your area of effect attacks."

"Can do!" Lyon said. "Ice Make: Water Serpent!"

Lyon created a water serpent made out of ice that spiraled around him and upward as it took out several of the skeleton soldiers.

"Keep trying all you'd like, but you'll never get past my army of undead warriors!" Morticia said.

"Think again!"

Morticia looked up and saw Spiral riding on the head of the ice serpent.

"Now that I have the aerial advantage…" Spiral said with a cocky smirk. "I can take you out!"

Spiral jumped off the water serpent and formed an orb of Sound Magic in his right hand.

"Archers, take him out!" Morticia ordered her bone warriors, taking a step back looking scared of Spiral's attack.

Before the skeleton archers could fire their arrows they were frozen by Lyon's magic.

"I've got you covered!" Lyon shouted. "Do it!"

"Sonic…"

Spiral was landing right in front of Morticia and it looked like he was ready to slam the orb of magic into the ground.

"Grandioso!"

As soon as the orb struck the ground a powerful shockwave had blown Morticia and her skeleton army away. In order to prevent himself from being caught in the shockwave, Lyon went prone and created an ice barrier in front of him. The blast had kicked up a lot of dust and it was hard to see anything. When the dust settled, Lyon could see Spiral standing in front of an immobilized Morticia and the skeleton soldiers were reduced to rubble.

"Heheh, we win!" Spiral said.

"I'm impressed." Lyon said as he walked up to him. "You made taking her out look easy."

"Well, I couldn't have done it without your help." Spiral said. "How many more from your guild came here?"

"Just three; me, Jura and Chelia."

"With Jura on our side, beating Silent Orochi will be a walk in the park!"

"Blaise asked us to bring you back to her guild. You will go there immediately. I'll make sure the rest of your friends are safe."

"… I know I'm going against Blaise's orders, but this is something I HAVE to do." Spiral said. "Silent Orochi killed everyone in my hometown and I won't rest until they're all either dead or behind bars! Yeah, beating Silent Orochi won't bring any of them back, but… I just need some form of closure so I can finally forgive myself!"

"Listen!" Lyon grabbed Spiral by the collar. "Your actions here could have gotten any of us all killed! What would happen if one of them died? Their blood would be on YOUR head! Stop being such a reckless child and-"

"No, you listen." Spiral said before grabbing Lyon's wrist and forced him to let go of him. "My friends chose to fight with me. They know how much this means to me and joined me to make sure none of us got ourselves killed. Don't think of us as idiots because we're not. We're Phoenix Dawn wizards and we always look out for our own!"

A/N: I think that's a good note to end on. I'm going to try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned for next time!