I'm so happy my writers block is gone, so that I can keep updating for you guys!

Enjoy!

Damien sighed as he leaned back against the airship, Azzie resting on her knees in front of him.

"Sounds like Drake, that jackass." Damien muttered, glaring at the unconscious form of the dragon slayer in question. He noted Azzie watching him with a pained expression, and saw her wipe tears away. "Don't cry, he'll be fine. He's a fighter, falling off of a cliff ain't shit compared to some things he's survived in the past."

"I know..." She replied quietly, closing her eyes as more thunder sounded overhead. She had Drake's coat in her arms, clutching it tightly. "I just...I..." Damien didn't know what to tell her. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he could trust her, let alone comfort her. He was worried too, but he was more focused on keeping an eye on Azzie to make sure she didn't try anything. Couldn't be too careful.

"Hey," Damien spoke up, causing her to meet his gaze. "I never told you my name, did I? I'm Damien." He decided to try and befriend her and held his hand out, and Azzie stared at it.

"Damien-sama..." She said slowly, looking back at him, purple eyes full of accusation. "The one that killed his sister."

"Eh?!" Damien asked, glaring at Drake out of the corner of his eye. "What exactly did that little shit tell you?!"

"That it was an accident." Azzie replied calmly, grasping his hand and giving it a single shake. "And you can't live it down." Damien released her hand and crossed his arms again, still glaring at Drake.

"Doesn't he know to keep his mouth shut...?" he asked weakly, trying to prevent the guilt overflowing him. Azzie crawled next to him under the bent metal sheet and leaned back, staring up at the wreckage.

"What was her name?" She asked abruptly, and Damien looked away.

"Steph." he replied.

"Steph-sama..." Azzie pondered aloud. "What did she look like?"

"Blonde." Damien replied, giving one word answers. "Blue eyes."

"Hm." Azzie murmured. "Was she nice?"

"Yeah, she was a little cutie, I guess." Damien chuckled. "She irritated the hell out of me, though. Big brother complex, I guess."

"Yeah." Azzie didn't ask anymore questions, which Damien appreciated. There was silence for a little bit before Azzie shifted to get more comfortable, and sighed. "I had a brother once." She told him.

"Once?" Damien asked curiously. "What happened to him?"

"The village I lived in was attacked." Azzie replied, scrunching up her face. "I watched him die, along with my parents." Damien felt a surge of pity for his former enemy, and almost wanted to comfort her.

"I'm sorry." He said, not sure what else he could say.

"Don't be." Azzie replied. "I was four, I don't even remember his name, nor my parents." That was rough, Damien didn't know what he whined about. Although he had his reasons for Steph's image burned in his head, Azzie could only see faceless people from her past that she'd watched die. That, in Damien's opinion, was worse. "I can't even remember what my mother looked like, either..." Azzie let out a weak chuckle. "The woman who brought me into this world, and I haven't a clue what she looked like. Shitty, huh?"

"Yeah." Damien agreed, now seeing her as a person who was surrounded by misfortune instead of a mindless psychopath, which was his first impression of the enemy. "I'm sure she was a wonderful woman."

"Wish I could agree." Azzie replied, hiding her face from Damien. "But I don't remember." Damien couldn't do much else but grunt in agreement, as Azzie seemed to be blocking him out. Just as he was about to check on Meredy and Sorano, an explosion caused Damien to lose his balance and hit his head against the hull of the ship.

"Ow, fuck!" Damien growled, massaging the area of his head that had made contact. "What n the fu...Azzie?" The purple haired woman had crawled out and was staring out into the distance, rigid. "Azzie...?" Damien could see the problem, a huge black pillar of magic had arisen in the far west of the airship.

"No..." Azzie whispered as the sound of the magic nearly deafened them. "Master Kronos, why would you release him...?"

"Who?" Damien asked, watching the pillar move slowly to the left of where it appeared. "Who is that?"

"T-T-T..." Azzie couldn't even speak the name, and Damien looked over to find her as pale as a ghost. "Taisho..."

"Taisho?" Damien demanded. "Who is that, a problem?"

"Calling Taisho a mere problem is like calling an Etherion strike a weak attack" Azzie said quietly, looking near faint. "It doesn't matter who gets in his way now, Devil Advocate or not, he'll kill them. He doesn't care."

"So...?" Damien asked, and Azzie sighed.

"He'll kill everyone he lays eyes on. The demon of ice takes no prisoners."

Nashi felt like she was going to explode, which wasn't a pleasurable feeling, believe it or not. Eating Katsuchi's fire had nearly killed her in itself, but having it in her system and usable was painful. Very painful. It was totally worth it to see Katsuchi and Tetsu terrified out of their minds.

"What's wrong, guys?" Nashi asked, observing the black fire that ringed her body.

"You're insane." Katsuchi said quietly. "That could've killed you!"

"It feels like it will." Elise replied quietly, rubbing her scaly armor. "That iron is killing me."

"And I feel ready to implode." Nashi replied, raising a hand towards the God Slayers. "Than again, I've been through worse." The fireball that left her hand threw them away from each other, landing across the clearing from each other.

"Fire God's Bellow!" Katsuchi shouted, aiming for Elise, who stood stationary as the attack came towards her. The black fire engulfed her, and Katsuchi laughed in triumph. That stopped, however, as Elise appeared out of the fire, unharmed.

"It would appear." Elise said with a chuckle. "That the scaled armor of the Iron Dragon God deflects all magic. Bellowing Roar of the Iron Dragon God!" The gray and black attack rammed right into Katsuchi, knocking him over almost immediately. Tetsu was still standing still, eyes wide. Nashi didn't appreciate the look.

"Brilliant Flame of the Fire Dragon God!" The fireball engulfed Tetsu, throwing him up into the air, which Nashi followed quickly. "Fire Dragon God's Death Scythe!" Nashi could see why Katsuchi loved the bladed attack so much, it was quick and painful. The red and black scythe threw Tetsu back to earth, creating a crater next to Katsuchi, who chuckled as he stood.

"So you ladies got a little power up. Big deal. We have to win, or that black pillar over there is going to tear us a new one." Nashi turned to find what the God Slayer was referring too, as a huge column of black magic had risen up in the distance, moving to the right. "That thing? Yeah, Taisho's on the move. You hear that, Tetsu?" The iron God Slayer nodded and struggled to stand, but eventually did so.

"Loud and clear." he hissed, body covering itself in his armor again. "Taisho ain't gonna appreciate finding us losing, so that isn't gonna happen. Not a fucking chance now that he's out."

"Sounds like he's a strong opponent, huh Nashi?" Elise asked, cracking her knuckles. Nashi chuckled.

"Maybe we should introduce ourselves after we're done here."

"If you're suicidal, sure." Katsuchi replied. "Go on ahead. Taisho won't hesitate to annihilate you, he never has." Nashi didn't like the way this Taisho seemed to literally scare the shit out of these two, it unnerved her. "Besides, you two will lose here anyway!" Nashi wasn't prepared for the burst of speed Katsuchi used to propel his fist into her face, and then followed up with a kick. Nashi grabbed his foot and flung him away, blasting the landing area with her mixture of fire magic. Katsuchi fought through it and they rolled around on the ground for a little before Nashi drove her foot into his stomach, sending him flying off. She turned just in time to get a club to the face. Tetsu had weaved around Elise to try and double team her with Katsuchi, but Nashi's abilities were in overdrive due to the God fire, and she easily out matched the two of them and threw Katsuchi into the air, swiping at him with her own scythe. Elise tackled Tetsu from the left and slammed her clubs into his stomach, before he kicked her off and they both turned their arms into katanas, having a very deadly sword fight. Nashi spent one to many seconds watching said battle, and felt Katsuchi connect with her back, and threw a barrage of fireballs at her as she tried to recover. She was about to fight back when pain shot down her spine, coupled with the black fire nearly sputtering out.

"What the...?" Nashi asked, raising her hand and watched the fire flicker weakly. "Why is it dying...?"

"Because it isn't yours." Nashi looked up at Katsuchi when he answered her. "Your body isn't accustomed to more powerful fire, so it's struggling to adapt your magical power to it. If you were any weaker, it would have killed you already."

"So, if I don't hurry this up, the power up will fade?"

"Most likely."

"Shit..."

Sawyer didn't know why he'd gone so far away from the base camp, but with his speed it really didn't matter anyway. He was quite certain that Damien could hold down the fort if it came to that, the boy was more that competent He sighed as he jumped down from his small overlook and proceeded to do another loop around, checking for anything he should be wary of. Quite honestly he was surprised he hadn't seen anything yet, they had been attacked when they were shot down, after all.

"Man, this isn't a damn thing out here..." he hissed, watching the tree line for a few seconds before he turned and moved on. "What the hell did Damien think he was doing, sending me and Macbeth out on patrol? Why the hell did we listen? Ugh, so many questions..." it couldn't be helped at this point sadly, as he had already gone out to look. Damien had seemed dead serious when he had told them to patrol, so Sawyer had trusted it. Had it all been for naught. "Damn that kid, seriously..." Sawyer was about to turn and run back to the camp when frost began to gather around the area in front f him.

Ice magic?

Sawyer whirled around at the sound of everything freezing over, only to find a young black haired man coming out of the brush.

"Finally." he hissed, crossing his arms. "Someone to kill. Quite honestly I was hoping for Maya or Azzie so I could punish them for their loss, but whatever, you'll do."

"And who are you, exactly?" Sawyer asked, preparing to dodge any oncoming attack from his enemy. He knew he'd have to watch his running now that the ground was freezing over, but he was good for it. The young man chuckled.

"Just call me Taisho until I kill you, then it won't matter anyway."

"Don't count me out kid." Sawyer replied, "I'm not that weak from the airship crash."

"I didn't plan to count on that, but thanks for reminding me." Taisho grinned maliciously and the temperature dropped dangerously, and Sawyer could now see his own breath as it drifted through the area in front of his eyes. "I know more than you think, Racer." Sawyer felt his eyes widen at the use of his old code name, one he had not heard in years.

"How did you...?" Sawyer began, earning another laugh.

"Did you think we didn't know our shit?!" Taisho roared, "We did our fucking homework before we attacked, I know all of your weakness' Racer! Now." The temperature dropped even more and Sawyer shivered. "You'll be the first in the pile of bodies I'll pile in front of Master Kronos! Takeover: demon Vantros!

"Takeover, huh?" Sawyer asked as Taisho's body became engulfed in dark light. "Interesting, let's see what you got!" Sawyer instantly regretted that decision, as Taisho, in his new form, rushed at him with unforeseen speed, slamming an icy fist into his chin. Before Sawyer even had a chance to recover, icicles appeared out of the ground to try and run him through as he landed from the attack. After managing to avoid those, Taisho was already all over him again, beams of frozen magic flying from his open palms and towards Sawyer, who did his best to dodge and not slip on the ice and fall on his ass. he tried to loop around and attack Taisho from behind, but the younger man was already ready for it, catching him by the fist.

"Too slow, Racer." he hissed, magic gathering in his other hand. "I wish I could say I expected more, but I really didn't."

"Shit..." Sawyer hissed as the beam grew in size. "he was way to fast..."

"Bye bye, Racer!"

Boom!

Taisho sighed as he stared down at the motionless form of Racer at his feet.

"Honestly." Taisho hissed. "I was expecting more than that." He sighed and bent down to pick the man up, slinging him over his shoulder. He knew full well the man wasn't dead, he hadn't aimed to do so. Taisho planned on going to the wreckage of the airship Katsuchi had knocked down, and then throwing Racer's body down in front of whoever was there, before he killed them. he knew full well people were there, he managed to scare it out of one of Kronos' subordinates. Although they were weakened from the crash, Taisho really couldn't care less, as long as he got to kill them. It was his favorite hobby, after all.

"Heheheh." Taisho chuckled as he made his towards the wreckage, knowing that carrying the man this way would reduce the speed he made it there at, but he could wait. After all, the wait before the kill just made the blood that poured over his hands all the more sweet. "Just you wait, Fairies, and you'll know what true fear is...ain't that right, Vantros?" Taisho turned to face the demon standing next to im, who nodded simply.

"Yes, true." he said quietly, and Taisho watched him curiously.

"Oi, what's up with you?" Taisho demanded. "You're way to not happy about all the killing we get to do." Vantros sighed and crossed his arms, facing Taisho again.

"I'm just anticipating what'll happen when we get there." He replied coldly, as was his style. "It will be no easy fight."

"Hey, you remember who you're talking to?!" Taisho demanded, giving the demon a venomous look. "I'm Devil Advocate's ace, for fucks sake! Who could possibly..."

"Xisplate." The name sent a shiver down Taisho's back, and he chuckled.

"They got one, huh?" He whispered, getting a nod on confirmation. "A fight between Lords, you say...I'm getting all excited just thinking about it!"

"Do not underestimate the leader of the Lords." Vantros scolded, earning a scoff from the mage. "You have not seen true fear until the Demon of Death descends on you."

"Ah, cram it with your philosophical horseshit!" Taisho shouted. "I'll walk all over that takeover wizard, just you fucking watch! He's a fool if he thinks he stands a chance!" Vantros watched Taisho laugh, before he rolled his eyes.

"If anyone is the fool here," he said, "it's you, Taisho."

Getting pretty intense, huh? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! let's try and get five!