Chapter Twenty-One: Chase Through the Snow

Here's the Day 2 chapter, readers, enjoy.

"Missing?" Asta and Kenos said together.

"Where could they have gone, and why would they leave?" Kenos wondered before holding onto himself. "Damn, when did it get so cold out here," he then looked around and saw it was snowing. "Snow? But that's impossible, it's summertime, there shouldn't be any snow,"

"Taking that into account, do you think it's a spell someone cast?" Asta asked.

"It's a possibility, whoever cast the spell could've been the one who took Luca and Marco," Kenos replied.

Doors began opening all throughout the town as men and women came out.

"Son, where did you go?!"

"Where are you, my daughter?!"

Those cries echoed through the night. "It seems that other people's children are missing too, this is really bad," Rebecca stated.

"Damn it, when did it start snowing, forget that, why is it snowing?!" a voice exclaimed as footsteps were heard approaching the group.

Kenos and Asta recognized that voice, and as they turned in its direction, lo and behold, Noelle was before them.

"Noelle, what are you doing in Nean?" Kenos asked.

"Well, if you must know, I was just, in the area, complete coincidence," she replied before looking at the two girls.

"Oh yeah, you haven't been introduced, this is my friend, Eon Teru," the solar mage said.

"It's really nice to meet you, Noelle," Eon said with a small smile.

"The same to you," Noelle said back with the same expression.

"And meet Rebecca Scarlet, Rebecca, this is my good friend, Noelle Silva," Asta introduced this time.

Noelle looked at the scarlet-haired girl. "Uh, it's her,"

Rebecca looked at the water mage. "He called her his good friend,"

"Hi," they greeted each other quite dryly, with a look on their faces that weren't any better.

Kenos could feel some hostility between the two girls, but merely shrugged it off. "We need to find the children quickly, that will lead us to the one who took them, Asta, Gauche, let's get a move on,"

"Right," Asta said.

"The two of you can go on your own, this isn't my problem," Gauche stated.

"What!" the two rookies exclaimed.

"No way, first you try to kill me despite the fact that I'm your squadmate, and now you don't want to help find missing children despite the fact that you're a Magic Knight, you really need to get your priorities straight!" Asta exclaimed.

"That still doesn't change the fact that this isn't my problem," Gauche protested.

"Everyone, we have a problem!" a voice exclaimed, everyone turned to see Theresa running to them.

"Is something the matter, Sister Theresa?" Eon asked.

"Yes, it's Marie, she's gone missing," the old lady replied.

"Okay, now this is my problem," Gauche said as he ran to the nun and held her up by her collar, an angry look on his face. "What the hell, you stupid old hag, how'd you let Marie slip under your grimy fingers!"

"Gauche, put her down, she's an old lady," Asta said.

"Not until I get a good punch in," the mirror mage answered.

"You're as hard-headed as always, fire your punch if you want, but it won't bring Marie back," Theresa said, neither her face nor voice showed fear.

"You may be right, but just like I told Kenos earlier, I'm just too angry to care!" Gauche exclaimed, ready to punch the old lady.

However, a look of shock came to everyone's face when they saw that Asta moved in and took the punch for Theresa, what surprised them even more, was the fact that he didn't appear hurt by it.

"Asta, what the hell," Gauche muttered.

"C'mon Gauche, we shouldn't get too hot-headed now," the swordsman said before quickly raising his head and headbutting the mirror mage, he dropped the old lady and fell down on the snow.

Kenos winced as he held his forehead, imagining how much that would hurt if he was the target of such an attack.

"We shouldn't be hasty or quick to anger Gauche, we're Magic Knights, and as such, we must remain calm," Asta said seriously.

Kenos and Noelle looked at the swordsman, they could've sworn they saw Fuegoleon standing behind him.

The solar mage grinned, glad his squadmate was taking the words of the vermillion-haired captain to heart.

"Thank you very much, Asta, sometimes I wish Gauche could act a bit more like you, it would make a lot more bearable," Theresa said as she straightened the wrinkles on her collar.

The magicless mage nodded before noticing something. "Hey, what's that?" he wondered aloud as he walked a few feet away from them and knelt down. "Look here everyone, I found footprints, they're small, but they go pretty deep, as if they were stepped on multiple times,"

"That would mean that the kids were walking in a single file," Kenos noted. "So wherever they are, it's in one place,"

"Good, so we can follow these footprints to find them," Asta said.

"We could, but if Kenos is right and they're in one place, we just need to know where Marie is," Gauche said. "And luckily, I gave her a Magic Item which will allow me to track her,"

"Well, it doesn't matter which method we use, because we'll be going to the same place," Kenos told them. "Gauche, let's go get our brooms inside,"

"Right," he said as they both ran back inside and got their brooms, soon jumping out of the recently made hole to meet back with the others.

"Let's get moving, we can't just stay here talking," Theresa said as she pulled out her broom and mounted it, floating into the air.

"She's right, climb on Asta," Kenos said as the swordsman did so, at the same time, Gauche mounted his own broom.

Asta turned to face Noelle. "You coming?"

The water mage shook her head. "No, I'll stay here and call reinforcements just in case, we still don't know what threat we're dealing with,"

"Alright then, we're off," Kenos said as they all began flying in the direction of the footprints.

"Good luck, and be careful!" Rebecca and Eon called out, hoping their friends would return safely with all the children.

"Where...am I?"

Those were the first thoughts that entered Marie's head, her vision was blurry and her mind felt weak, all she knew was that she was kneeling down, but as she tried to move or speak, she found that her body wasn't responding.

But just then, the little girl began glowing, and both her vision and mind cleared up, she looked to her side and saw Marco and Luca, but their eyes appeared lifeless, as if they were in some kind of trance, she looked to the other side and saw other children, the same look was found in their eyes as well.

"There has to be a way out of here," Marie thought as she quickly observed her surroundings, by the looks of it, they were in some kind of cave, but as she looked in another direction, in the distance, she noticed two men, one was a tall and slender man with long white hair, he wore a white shirt with white pants, and a blue scarf wrapped around his neck, the other man was slightly shorter and much fatter with black hair, he wore a navy blue shirt with navy blue pants, and a white scarf was wrapped around his neck, he also wore a pair of strange-looking glasses.

Marie softly gasped. "Those must've been the people who brought us here, it's best that I don't attract attention to myself, I just have to wait, hopefully, Asta and Sister Theresa will come and save us, oh, and big brother too," she mumbled.

"I was able to bring all these kids here, all with my new spell, Enchanting Snowfall," the white-haired man spoke.

The black-haired man grinned evilly. "Good work Neige, your big brother is proud of you,"

Neige smiled. "Really, thank you, Baro," he said before walking forward, looking at the numerous children before him. "Seeing all these kids here make me so happy,"

"Don't get too happy there Neige," Baro said.

"Alright, but it's no problem if I just count how many are here," the snow mage cheerfully whispered as he walked through the group of kids, counting them by groups of 15, as that was the number of children in each line.

"Oh no, he's coming this way, but I'll be fine, as long as I don't move or say anything, he won't notice that I'm no longer under his spell, everything will be-," Marie began thinking, but stopped as she felt something, but that feeling genuinely frightened her. "I have to sneeze,"

"45, 60, 75," Neige continued counting as he moved up, soon approaching Marie's row.

"I have to hold it in, but it's so hard to," the little girl thought, but the feeling in her nose only grew stronger. "No, no, no!"

Neige finally made it up to her row, ready to add the next number to his count, but that's when Marie could no longer hold back.

"Achoo!" the sound of her sneeze was loud as it echoed throughout the cave, catching the attention of the two brothers.

"What the?" Neige said as he looked at the source of the sound.

Marie was caught, there was nothing she could've done to mask her presence now, but there was still something she could do. "What, where am I, how did I get here, who are you?!" she exclaimed, doing her best to make it sound genuine.

"Oh, it seems that my spell doesn't stop the kids from doing anything natural, and sneezing must have freed her from my trance, good to know," Neige concluded in his head, believing Marie's act that she had just broken free.

The snow mage moved up to the girl. "You don't need to be afraid, my name is Neige,"

Marie looked around her to look at the other kids in order to make the mage believe she was just beginning to assess her surroundings. "Why have you brought us here?"

"What a good question, I brought you all here so you could be my friends," Neige replied.

"Your...friends?" Marie repeated.

The white-haired man nodded. "That's right, all of you will become my friends,"

"But, you can't do that," Marie said.

Neige looked confused. "Excuse me?"

"You kidnapped all of these children and put them under a spell, you don't make friends like that, what you're doing is wrong!" the little exclaimed.

The snow mage, however, merely grit his teeth as he slapped the girl across the face. "What do you know, you're just a kid!" he angrily exclaimed.

"Cool it there Neige," Baro said, stopping to lightly chuckle to himself for the accidental pun he made regarding his brother's name, but he quickly stopped as he tapped something on his glasses and looked at Marie. "Thanks to this Magic Item, I can see the amount of magic power all of these kids have, and hers' is quite impressive, so I'd be careful not to hurt her,"

"W-Why does our magic power matter?" Marie asked.

"I'm so glad you asked missy, why don't you take a look to your far left," Baro replied.

"My far left?" Marie wondered as she did so, but her eyes widened in panic and fear, to her far left was a large contraption of some kind, there was a lone steel chair with arm and leg straps, behind the chair were two large cylindrical glass containers. "What is that thing?"

"Another good question, this machine is designed to suck out magic from people, straight out of some kind of horror story, and the unlucky people we'll be sucking magic from are all of you," Baro replied once more.

"You two are a bunch of criminals," Marie said.

"You think I didn't know that, but that doesn't matter, Neige might get happy from seeing people here, but I get happy from seeing all the kids with high amounts of magic," Baro laughed as he scanned through the groups of children with his magic item, grinning at the sight of so many with strong levels of magic, however, that grin soon faded.

"Hey, there's a weak one here, Neige, I said to only get strong kids," the black-haired man complained.

"Sorry brother," the snow mage apologized.

"It's no big problem, there's only one," Baro said as he walked over to Marie and grabbed a boy next to her.

The little girl knew exactly who that boy was. "Marco!"

"Oh, you know him, what, is he your boyfriend or something, uh, don't answer that, I really don't care, he has little magic so I don't need him," Baro said casually as he walked to the entrance of the cave with the scarlet-haired boy, who was still in a trance. "Hasta la vista kiddo!" he exclaimed with a chipper tone as he threw the boy carelessly out.

"No!" Marie screamed, but was slapped by Neige again.

"What did I say Neige," Baro said as he walked up to Marie. "Relax girl, he'll be fine, or at least, I think he'll be, but that's the least of your concerns, because it's time to start taking some magic, but tell you what, since you have such a high amount, I'll take yours last, how does that sound," he said as he began laughing uncontrollably.

Marie looked at the man in horror, scared of the fate she and the other children would be subjected to. "Someone, please hurry,"

"The footprints just keep going," Kenos said as he continued to look down, wondering when the trail would end, leading them to the location of the kidnapped children.

"The feeling from Marie's item is getting stronger, that means we're getting closer," Gauche stated from beside the solar mage

"That's good, let's pick up the pace," Asta said, none were opposed to the idea and did so.

As the four continued to fly, they passed by a rather large cave. "The footprints just ended," Kenos stated.

"And the feeling is really strong," Gauche added.

"Then we're here," Theresa said before noticing something below. "Wait, do you all see what I see,"

The three Black Bulls looked down, and their eyes widened, right at the entrance of the cave, a boy was lying there.

"It's one of the kids!" Asta exclaimed as he jumped down from Kenos' broom, landing softly on the bed of snow.

Kenos and Theresa quickly landed shortly after, Gauche, however, entered the cave. "I have to rescue Marie as quickly as possible, I'll leave the boy to you," he said.

Asta ran up and held the boy. "Hey, it's Marco, c'mon buddy, wake up," he said, but the boy was unresponsive, he had light bruises across his arm and face, not to mention he was cold to the touch.

"Wait, I think he's under some kind of spell, don't forget, someone had to cast one to lead the children here," Kenos reminded him. "And if it's a spell, you can undo it with your sword,"

"That's right," the swordsman said, pulling out his large sword from his grimoire and lightly tapping the boy's head with the crossguard of it.

Life returned to Marco's eyes. "Asta, Sister Theresa?" he muttered before holding himself and shaking. "I'm so cold,"

"Let's get you warmed up Marco," Theresa said as her grimoire came out in front of her, flipping through pages. "Flame Recovery Magic: Sacred Healing Light," she said as candles floated around the boy, glowing softly, his bruises began to slowly disappear.

"Ah, that feels better," Marco said with a tone of comfort.

Kenos bent down to look at the scarlet-haired boy. "Tell me, Marco, is there anything you can remember from recently?"

"No, I remember being in bed one minute, then the next minute, I'm out here with all of you looking at me," he replied.

"I see," the solar mage stood up. "We need to get into the cave, Gauche already has a headstart on us,"

"But what about Marco?" Theresa asked. "Whoever's behind this, it's the children they're after, taking Marco back in there wouldn't be wise,"

"True, but Gauche might need all the help he could get in there, so...I think we might need to leave Marco out here," Kenos reluctantly concluded.

"You can't leave me here, I'm scared," the boy said.

"Don't be scared Marco, you have to be brave," Asta said as he put his sword down and took off his robe. "Here, take my robe,"

"Your robe?" Marco looked confused.

"Yeah, it's full of courage, that's why we Magic Knights wear them," Asta told him. "That, and it'll keep you warm,"

"Asta," Kenos thought with a smile, it was obvious the swordsman was lying, but it was nice to see him try to calm the boy's worries.

Marco took the robe and put it on. "Wow, I can feel the courage, and the warmth," he said with a smile.

Asta smiled as well. "Not to mention you look good in it," he said as he picked up his sword. "No time to waste, let's move, we know where they are now,"

Theresa mounted her broom as Kenos did the same with Asta coming behind him. "Take care Marco, we'll be back soon," the solar mage said as they flew into the cave.

"Okay, I'll be right here, good luck!" the boy exclaimed as the three were soon out of his view.

"AHHHHH!"

A girl's scream loudly rung throughout the cave as she was strapped to the magic-siphoning machine, Baro grinned as he saw her magic power enter one of the containers, he then turned it off and freed her from her restraints, before tossing her body aside as it laid lifeless next to two others.

"That's three kids!" Baro said with a laugh.

Marie watched in horror as three children just had their magic sucked out of them before being tossed aside.

"Alright, I wonder which kid is next," the black-haired man said as he walked to a boy. "You'll do just fine,"

"No!" Marie exclaimed. "Stop, I can't bear to watch this anymore!"

"Be quiet, unless you want to get slapped again," Neige said quietly as he stood beside her. The little girl looked at him defiantly.

"No can do missy," Baro replied with a chuckle as he continued to drag the boy to the machine. "This is all business, the mana we're extracting isn't for us, but rather for our employers,"

"Employers? Who would want you to do all of this?" Marie asked.

"That's where my lips stay sealed, you might not be conscious by the end of the night, but only an idiot would just give all of their info away," the man replied as he finished strapping the boy into the chair. "Time for number four,"

"No!" the little girl exclaimed.

"That voice, I'd recognize it anywhere!" a voice exclaimed, the three turned to see that it was coming from the entrance of the cave, then, in just another second, Gauche rushed out. "Marie!"

"Gauche!" Marie exclaimed overjoyed as she stood up and began running in the direction of her big brother.

"Oh no you don't," Neige said as he grabbed onto her hair, pulling her back. "You're not going anywhere,"

"Ow, that hurts, let me go!" the girl cried.

"Marie!" Gauche exclaimed as he angrily looked at the snow mage. "Hey, the guy in the white, I hope you've enjoyed your life, because I'm ending it now!"

"Shit, who is this guy?!" Baro said before he noticed what the mage was wearing, he gasped as his eyes widened in fear. "A Magic Knight, they found us, this isn't good, I didn't think I would need to use this, but I might not have a choice," he mumbled as he pulled out a device from his pocket with a singular button on it and pushed the button, returning it to his pocket.

"Neige, what're you waiting for, take on that guy, I need you to buy me as much time as possible to absorb the magic from these kids!" Baro exclaimed to his brother.

"I'm on it, you can count on me, Snow Magic: Snow Cry!" Neige exclaimed as he blasted a stream of snow at the mirror mage.

"What kind of lame attack is that, Mirror Magic: Mirror Shift!" Gauche exclaimed as a mirror appeared beside him, but another appeared a good distance from him, he then disappeared and reappeared by the mirror that was far away.

"A spell made to evade singular attacks, well let's see how you do against this, Snow Creation Magic: Snow Friends!" Neige then exclaimed as five large snowmen appeared, all moving towards Gauche.

The Black Bull looked unimpressed. "It doesn't matter what you do, it'll be the same result, Mirror Magic: Reflect Ray!" he exclaimed as he fired a beam of light right at the chest of one of the snowmen.

But to his surprise, the hole in the construct's chest merely closed itself back up. "Okay, maybe I was a little wrong, but that just means I have to try harder!" Gauche exclaimed as multiple mirrors began appearing, all surrounding the snowmen. "Let's try this again, Mirror Magic: Reflect Refrain!"

At his call, light began bouncing from mirror to mirror, and as they were doing so, powerful beams shot out from them, destroying all that was in between them, which in this case, was all of Neige's snowmen.

"Oh no!" the snow mage exclaimed.

"Crap, he got beaten already," Baro muttered as he ran to Marie and began pulling her arm.

"Hey," Marie said.

"Did I say you were going to be last? Yeah, I lied, I need to get as much magic as possible and get the hell out of here, and the one with the most is you, so don't make this hard on me," Baro explained.

"Brother!" Marie exclaimed.

"Marie, don't you lay a finger on my angel!" Gauche exclaimed as he raced to the black-haired man.

"Watch it there Magic Knight, I'd be careful if I were you, you haven't seen my magic yet, so if you move another inch, your sister is dead, I don't think you'd want that, would you?" Baro threatened as Gauche grit his teeth.

The criminal grinned. "Good, now you just stay there, you have a front-row seat to see me take your sister's magic, watch as she screams in pain and agony!" he exclaimed with an evil laugh.

"No, what am I going to do, I have to rescue Marie," Gauche thought to himself.

"Ha!" a scream dragged him out of his thoughts, as he searched for where the voice came from, an orange beam passed right by him, heading straight for Baro, the black-haired man was separated from the girl as he fell to the ground.

"Wait a minute, I know that spell, that was Sunbeam Ray, which means…," the mirror mage began before he turned around, and lo and behold, Kenos was standing at the entrance to the outside of the cave, Asta and Theresa standing beside him. "...You guys,"

"That's right, we're here," Kenos said as he looked at Baro and Neige. "And it appears that we've found our perpetrators, only two of them though, I thought there would be more,"

Gauche wasted no time flying towards Marie, picking her up and bringing her far away from the man. "Are you alright Marie?"

"I was so scared, thank goodness you're here," the little girl cried as she embraced her brother.

Blood fell down the mage's nose as he held his sister. "You don't need to be scared anymore, your brother will protect you," he said warmly as he looked at her face, but soon noticed something. "Marie, a part of your face is red?"

The little girl touched the part he was talking about, she then turned to Neige. "That man was really mean to me, he slapped me twice," she replied.

"What?!" Gauche exclaimed as he looked at Neige with murderous intent.

"Oh crap," Neige muttered as he tried to run away, but was stopped as Gauche hit him full on with a Reflect Ray before the mirror mage walked to him and began kicking him on the ground. "So, you dare to hit my angelic sister not once, but twice, then you pull her magnificent hair before my very eyes, you must really have a death wish,"

"The children," Theresa said as she ran to the boy strapped to the chair and freed him, she then looked at the three children on the ground. "Their mana is really weak, as if it was forcefully drained out of them, they'll still be able to use magic, but only in small amounts, their lives will never be the same again,"

"What?" Asta muttered as he looked seriously at Baro, he gripped the sword in his hand.

"This is as far as you criminals go, Gauche is already handling that first guy, so I'll handle you," Kenos said.

"No," Asta said from behind the solar mage as he laid a hand on his shoulder, Kenos looked back and was almost taken aback by the look in the swordsman's eyes. "He's mine,"

"Um, okay then," Kenos said as he backed up, letting Asta advance toward the black-haired man.

Baro stood up. "That Magic Knight just let a kid decide to take me on alone," he thought as he pushed his glasses to gauge Asta's magical power, but his eyes widened. "This kid doesn't have any magic at all? This will be too easy, I'll beat him, then use him as leverage to keep the others at bay, this plan will work perfect-,"

He didn't get to finish his thought as Asta zoomed towards him and swiftly attacked with his sword, sending the man crashing towards a wall, the swordsman then dropped his sword and quickly moved in on him.

"What the hell...just happened?" Baro muttered as he soon saw Asta standing in front of him, an angry look on his face.

"I was born without magic, not even a drop of it, my life was miserable because of it, but I was able to turn it around, I would never wish my fate on anyone...yet here you are, taking the magic from children, and ruining their futures, it just makes me so mad!" Asta exclaimed as he punched the wall only a few inches from Baro's face, forming a sizable crater.

"I've never seen him so angry at someone before," Kenos said.

The magicless mage then sighed. "You might make me angry, but it's not my place to punish you, the two of you will pay for your crimes!"

"Wait, that means we're going to jail, no, I can't let that happen, I won't, but what do I do, Neige is down, and I'm not doing so good either, I pressed that button some time ago, shouldn't she be here by now," Baro thought frantically.

"Yo, Baro, you here, I got the signal from the homing device I gave you, is there a problem?" a voice asked calmly, a female voice.

Everyone turned to see where it had come from, the voice had come from an alternate entrance, but as they saw who it was, Gauche and Theresa were confused, but Asta and Kenos were not.

"Damn it, I didn't think she'd be working with them," Kenos said as he recognized the female in question.

Sally.