Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.

-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-

Chapter 22: The Big Bad Wolf

Year: X754. 30 years till Canon begins.

Cade POV:

"Ice Beam!" I cried out, sending a beam of ice towards the monster in front of me. The Werewolf proceeded to sprint towards me using all four of his legs to maximise his speed. As the spell was heading towards him, he quickly slowed down and held up one of his claws to block the attack.

I was shocked to see this happen, and sprinted to the side to get away from the creature. He then finished blocking the attack and leapt towards me. I continued running away, but he landed right behind me and grabbed me with his claw.

He then raised me up in the air and prepared to gut me with his other claw, I however did not plan to let this happen, as I wiggled my hand into my jacket and pulled out my Raito short sword and held it up at his eyes.

"Illuminating Flash!" I shouted, as I closed my own eyes and summoned a burst of bright light from the sword which blinded the Werewolf causing him to drop me.

"ARGH! MY EYES!" He bellowed out, as he covered his eyes with his claws. "When my sight recovers, you'll pay for that in full you filthy child!" He screamed as he began to slash wildly around him, hoping to hit me.

I had scrambled backwards when I got fell to the ground so I could get some distance between the both of us. I had made it a good distance away from the Werewolf, and was now behind some rocks. I then began to launch a flurry of spells at the monster.

"Ice Shards!"

"Fire Blast!"

"Lightning Strike!"

All of these attacks were sent towards the still blinded creature, and to my pleasure they all connected with him which caused a lot of smoke to appear around him from all of the fire. I watched on curiosity to see if I had taken him down after that.

When the dust cleared away, I was appalled to see that I had done seemingly no damage to him. There were no cuts, burns or bruises over his body.

'What the?! How'd he take no damage from my attacks just there?' I thought in surprise and confusion. 'I sent a lot of different attacks to him just there. Is he resistant to all of them?' I wondered, trying to figure my opponent out.

As I was thinking all of this, I saw that he had recovered himself and regained his eyesight and was now staring daggers at me.

'This might be harder than I thought.' I contemplated to myself, with a bit of anticipation of what he would do next.

He snarled at me, before grabbing a large plank of wood that had washed ashore next to him, that had originally been a part of the floor that we had fallen through. He then threw it at me with lightning fast speed.

I was only just able to dodge to the side to avoid the plank, but it did slice right by my jacket which tore right through the side of it. This caused my Kaen sword to fall down on to the ground as that was where it was being held.

I didn't get much time to react to this, as the Werewolf was now sprinting right towards me again ready to tear me to shreds. I chose to run away from the Werewolf in the direction he was coming from. When I could hear he was getting closer to me, I used a favourite little move of mine.

"Ice Pillars!" I shouted. During my training with Frag, I had learned to mimic one of his spells (of course I asked him to help me with the procedure of learning the spell) which allowed me to summon a huge hexagonal shaped pillar of ice from the ground.

These Pillars however, were summoned directly in the direction I was running to and were only a little above the ground, meaning I could easily step on them. As I leapt up to step on them, another set of pillars appeared from the ground above those ones, which I leapt up onto. Then another set appeared above those ones, and another after that.

I essentially was creating a pair of stairs that I could climb up, as long as I quick on my feet, and my hands were just as fast at casting the magic. I could hear a grunt of surprise from behind me, showing that the Werewolf did not expect me to start using my ice to start climbing into the air above us.

I then began to change the direction the beams were appearing in to the side slightly, each time I summoned them so that I would eventually run back on myself to the direction of the Werewolf. This was done successfully, and I was now above the hound and was now heading in his direction. I quickened my pace and began to prepare to cast my next set of spells at him.

Upon the both of us reaching each other, I jumped off the pillars right as the Werewolf slashed right through the ones I had summoned just there in an attempt to knock me down. I flew above the Werewolf and casted my spells at him.

"Lightning Strike!"

"Light Slasher!"

The attacks hit the beast on the top of his head, causing him to stagger a little. He then looked up to where I was, and tried to slash me with his claws. Unfortunately for him, I was at too awkward of an angle for him to reach me, so his claws slashed at back of my jacket.

'I'm gonna need a new jacket after all this…' I realised with a sigh, as I landed on the ground and quickly turned around to see whether my attacks did any damage to the hound. I was annoyed to see that I had yet again, dealt seemingly no damage against him.

'How can not be taking any damage from my attacks?' I mussed in my head. 'I got him right on his head, that should have done something!' As I was busy thinking of all of this, the Werewolf had leapt up into to air and was coming down towards me.

I responded by pulling out my Raito sword and prepared to cast Illuminating Flash again to stun him.

"Illuminating Flash!" I cried out closing my eyes, with a smirk on my face as I was confident that my trick would stun my opponent again. Allowing me to get a few more easy shots on him.

Unfortunately, the hound had seemed to anticipate that I would do this, as he quickly closed his eyes and covered them with his hands to shield himself. When the light faded, he continued towards me with a hungry look on his face.

I was barely able to dodge out of the way, by leaping to the side. This meant that he went crashing into the wall behind me. Not wanting to waste this chance, I proceeded to increase the distance between the both of us by running to the other side of the cave. I quickly prepared to fire an attack at the hound while he was inside the wall, to hit him while he was distracted.

"Ice Shards!" I shouted, which sent around a dozen or so shards of ice flying towards the giant hole in the wall. I could hear the Ice Shards make impact with something as they flew into the wall. They didn't shatter, which made me think that they hit the Werewolf.

After a few seconds of me firing the spells at him, I saw a claw emerge from the hole in the wall and grab the outer wall, which was then followed by another claw. Afterwards I saw the entire Werewolf emerge from the wall and stare down at me.

'Oh come on! How much damage can this guy take?' I grunted in frustration, as I got ready for his next move.

Said move in question was coming a lot quicker than I realised, as he picked up two big chunks of stone with his claws and hurled them towards me. I casted some spells back at the rocks as they flew towards me, to destroy them before they reached me.

"Ice Beams!" I cried, as I held out both my hands. This sent two beams of ice towards the rocks. The two attacks collided as they met each other in the middle. This caused a large amount of stone dust to appear in the air, which covered my view.

I squinted my eyes to see what was going on through the dust, to get an idea of what my opponent was up to. 'Argh! Really wish I brought my Kūki sword with me! I could have easily blown away that dust if I did!' I tsked in annoyance.

Instead of standing around aimlessly, I began to run close to the stone wall behind me while constantly looking around me to see where the Werewolf was. I wanted to try and get away from where I last was, as it would mean that my opponent wouldn't see where I would be.

At this point, the dust had all but disappeared. When I looked back to where the Werewolf was to see what he was doing… I couldn't see him.

Unnerved and afraid by this sudden disappearance, I immediately scanned the cavern we were in to see where he was. The cavern was lit up by glowing green moss which was on the walls and even some on the floor.

As my eyes scanned the room to try and find him, I eventually heard the sound of something next to me. I turned around to see what it was and I saw that it was some stone dust that had fallen to the floor.

Curious as to what had caused the stone dust to fall just there, I looked up and saw a large dark silhouette crawling on the ceiling of the cavern above me.

Oh.

I only had a few seconds to move to the side before I saw the dark silhouette drop down onto the floor causing a huge crater to form. I was blown away by the impact of the blast and was sent flying across the ground, where I eventually came to a stop.

That little scuffle there had injured me quite a bit, but I was still able to get back up on my own two feet. As I did and shook myself down, I saw that the Werwolf was leaping towards me with his claws outstretched ready to gut me with his claws.

"I'll rip you to shreds you little rat!" He yelled as he prepared to strike.

Thinking fast on my feet. I quickly lifted both my hands up in the air and cried out my counter spell.

"Ice Pillar!" I yelled, which allowed me to summon a huge hexagonal shaped pillar of ice from the ground and have it collide right with the Werewolf's chest, which sent him flying back up into the air.

As he was sent flying up into the air like a ragdoll. I quickly ran underneath him and slid on my knees (which did hurt, but I wasn't wasting this opportunity) and prepared to cast a strong spell on the hound.

"Thundering Ice Beam!" I shouted with all my might, as I whipped out my Kaminari short sword and fired it up towards the Werewolf which sent a beam of lightning towards it. I also held out my spare hand and fired a beam of ice up towards him as well.

I had learned during my months of training that I could combine the elements that I fired out from my enchanted weapons with other forms of magic; Including my Ice Magic. I had found that the elements just sort of melded together as if it were instinct. I didn't need to put in that much work to do so, if they were close enough together then they would combine into a more powerful spell.

Some magical elements combined a bit more easily than others. Fire and lightning combined together quite easily, as did wind and water. However, fire and ice didn't really work to well together, neither did fire and water.

In this case, the lightning and ice worked decently well together. It wasn't a huge boost in power, but it was still some extra damage, more so than my other spells by themselves.

The fused attack flew upwards at hit my opponent on their back. To my surprise, I heard the beast howl in agony upon my attack landing.

'What the? Did that attacks actually do some damage there?!' I thought in amazement.

At this point I had cleared the distance between the both of us, and I was now a decent distance away from the hound, as he came crashing down to the ground. Another crater was formed, this time however I saw that the creature was struggling to get back up on its own two feet.

As I looked down in the crater in shock, I saw that there was a part of his back that had all the hair burned away leaving the bare skin exposed. The skin in question was a horrible purple colour, like the kind that you get when you bruise yourself really, really badly.

'Is that a weak spot right there?' I realised in surprise. 'That must be why my attack hurt him just then! If I can just land a few more attacks on that spot he'll probably go down for good.' I planned confidently, as I began to figure out a plan on how to win.

The Werewolf had been able to get back up on his own two feet and shook his head around, as if he was getting out of a trance he had been in. He then turned around to face me and narrowed his eyes.

"It's been a long time since someone has damaged me like that before. But I'm afraid that's the only chance you'll get, you little mongrel." The wolf declared, as he practically spat those last few words out. He then roared at me and began to run towards me with his claws outstretched.

'Time to make my comeback.' As a grin formed on my face.

This time, instead of running away from the big bad wolf in front of me, I chose to run at him and attack him directly. This seemed to confuse the giant Werewolf, as he had a look of surprise in his eyes; yet he did not halt his charge towards me. He continued to run in my direction with a malicious smile which revealed his jagged teeth.

I then held out my hand shot the ground as I continued to run, and casted my next spell. "Ice Floor!" I shouted with a smirk. This caused a large radius of the floor that we were both running on to suddenly turn into thick slippery ice.

The Werewolf suddenly struggled to not slip and crash onto the ice, when the ice had reached him. He was now holding out both his arms and was moving backwards and forwards, and left to right in order to not fall over.

I on the other hand, had practiced using this spell before, so I knelt down a little and began to slide my way towards the Werewolf as I held out both my hands for balance to not fall over. I continued to slide towards the Werewolf with elegance, as he was still stumbling around.

I then took the incredibly risky move of sliding right in between his legs, meaning I slid directly under him. It was risky as he could have easily slipped and fell over crushing me with his huge body, but this was one of my only ways to slow him down. He didn't get the chance to slash me with his claws as he was busy trying to maintain his balance on the ice.

When I finally slid under him and emerged from behind him, I quickly stood back up and turned around and aimed my next spell at him at his weak spot on his back.

"Ice Slicer!" I shouted. This was a move that I had learned a few months ago. It sent a huge slice of ice that was shaped like a disk towards the opponent. The idea was that it would hit his sore spot head on and deal some big damage to him.

As I sent the attack however, the Werewolf raised one of its legs and brought it down on the ice with its sharp claws digging right into the ice. He then did the same with his other leg, which meant that he was secure in place and had no risk of slipping over. He then turned around to see me which meant that my slicer attack only hit the corner of his sore spot.

"WARGHHH!" He screamed out, as he felt the spot on his back with his clawed hand. He then finished turning to look at me with a snarl on his face. "What did I just say!? I said you wouldn't get another chance like that! When I get my hands on you, I'm going to make sure you suffer!" He snarled as he yelled those words out, causing them to echo on the cave walls.

'Damn… If that attack of mine had hit his entire weak spot then he might have gone down for good. If I could land a few shots like that, he might be too weak to fight. I just have to time my attacks right, and get him by surprise. After all, he hasn't seen all my moves yet.'

By this point I had reached the end of the icy ground that I had created, and was now pretty far away from the Werewolf, who was now facing me in.

'It's ok… He's far away from me. He can't walk on the ice without risking falling over in the process. That means we're at a stalemate for the time being.' I sighed with relief, as a bit of sweat came down from my forehead.

I then saw the hound lift up one of its legs and bring it down in front of him very quickly while sticking his claws in the ice. He then did the same with his opposite leg, which was then brought down onto the ice as well. He then repeated this pattern, which was causing him to slowly move across the ice towards me.

'No! He's figured out a way to move across the ice with rising falling over!' I panicked internally, as he continued to cross the ice towards me. 'What do I do?! That was my only way of slowing him down until I could think of a way to counterattack him! Come on Cade, think! What's one way to slow him down again?' I tried to think, as he got closer and closer.

'…'

'…'

'!'

'Wait! That might work!' I realised in shock and surprise. 'I think I have enough magic to cast the spell, as I've mostly been using my enchanted swords to cast my magic. I just have to wait until he is a bit closer to me.' I took a deep breath with anticipation, as I knelt down next to the ice which was in front of me.

The Werewolf gave a snarky laugh upon seeing me kneel down just there. "Ha! You think by just giving up I'll go easy on you and give you a quick death? Well too bad. You've wasted this whole operation of mine, and you need to be killed for it!" He laughed as he quickened his pace towards me.

'Come on… Just a bit closer…'

I was now sweating like crazy, due to now nervous I was. Step after step, the hound got closer and closer to me. With his claws getting deep into the ice as he continued to move to me. It was when he was only a few feet away from me that he knelt down on all four of his limbs, meaning that his clawed hands and clawed feet were now deep in the ice. He was clearly preparing to pounce at me, so it was at that point I sprung my trap.

"Henshin!" I shouted, as I put both my hands on the ice. This caused the ice to suddenly turn back into stone like it was before. This time however, there was a big difference to how the stone was before and how it was now.

When I casted the ice spell that turned the stone floor into stone, I made it to where the ice would go a few centimetres deep, as to not shatter instantly whenever either of us went on it. As I pumping a lot of magic power into this move right now, I meant that the speed in which the conversion rate would happen was going a lot faster than usual right now.

(Unfortunately this can only be used on an almost completely flat surface that's isn't already ice. So is technically weaker than my Henshin spell, but it still has its uses. Hey, if Magnolia ever need an ice rink they just need to give me shout.)

This meat that by the time the werewolf was about to leapt out of the ice, his feet and hands were now stuck inside solid stone, instead of ice.

"WH-WHATTTTTT!?" He cried out in panic and shock upon seeing my trick right there. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" He boomed in anger.

"It's simple. I used my magic to change the ice you were walking on into some really thick stone. I waited until you would have both your feet in the ice so that when you got closer to me, I could use less magic to trap you with the spell and leave you trapped here." I answered with a smirk as I stood up.

"I'll admit, I didn't think you would have got down on all four of you limbs to pounce at me. I would have just gotten your feet. Guess I got lucky, with me getting your hands as well." I stated putting a finger on my chin.

The Werewolf now began to try and break out of the stone by attempting to move his hands and legs through the stone, however he looked aghast to find out that it was having no effect.

"ARGH! I'm really stuck here!" He cried out in fear upon realising his predicament. "L-Listen kid, I'll do anything you want. I'll pay you, leave the forest, call off this whole operation, I won't kill you just let me out of here!" He pleaded nervously, as he looked up at me.

"Sorry but I can't do that. You'll just kill me as soon as I let you out of there." I said, as I began to move around the giant beast with him still struggling in the ice. "I'm knocking you out, and taking you back to Magnolia for questioning." I followed on saying, as I began to move around him to where his back was.

"NOOOOOO! DAMM YOU, YOU LITTLE RAT!" The Werwolf cried out as he, continued to struggle rapidly in the stone. But this point, I had moved to where his back was, and I could easily see his weak spot.

I then began to charge up my final attack, which I intended to end this whole battle between the both of us. "I hope you learn that if you end up doing stuff like this again, then Fairy Tale will be coming for you and your cronies. Now, Shining Ice Beam!" I yelled at the top of my voice, as I whipped out my Raito Sword and summoned a jet of light from it, as well as sending a beam of ice from my hand that I had been charging up.

The two attacks combined together and formed a beam of Ice that shined bright enough to light up the entire cavern we were in, to the point to where I could see the ceiling in great detail. The attacks hit the Werewolf directly in his weak point on his back, causing him to let out a cry of agony.

"ARGHHHHHHHHH! How could I lose to a little child like yourself!?" He cried out with anguish. "No… Lord Shineva… I need more of your power!" Cried the Werewolf as he began to glow brightly after taking the attack.

I covered my eyes, as he glowed brightly. When the light faded, I removed my arm from my eyes and saw that the Werewolf had now transformed back into his human form.

He had rolled over, to where he was now lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. His clothes were in complete tatters after that fight just there. His shirt had been completely destroyed revealing his chest, and his trousers were now ragged and ripped apart. The sole of his shoes were shredded right off showing his bare feet.

I walked over to the defeated boss to question him about his intentions of this operation he had going on here. "Alright speak. What were you doing here?" I ordered sternly, as I loomed over him.

"Hahaha…" He muttered weakly, him barely getting the words out of his mouth. "Can't believe I lost to a little kid like you… if the others saw me now, they'd never let that go…" He remarked, coughing after saying that to me.

"Tell me! What were you and your men doing here! What is this Magnistone you are after?" I demanded as I held one of my swords to the boss's body to intimidate him.

"Heh, the funny thing is… You still think you've won here." The boss scoffed to himself, while still struggling to get the words out. "You think you can get answers out of me just like that that?" He questioned with a smirk. "He doesn't like it when we fail, so he put these measures in place to make sure we don't give anything away." He said pointing to his brain.

"What you are you talking about!? You've lost here! I'll be taking you back to the surface and you and your men will be handed in to the Rune Knights!" I stated, annoyed at his attitude.

"I'm going to hell kid! And I plan on bringing you with me!" The boss yelled with his eyes widening. Just then he began to hum lightly and slowly, however the humming quickly began to get louder and faster.

I then realised what the man was doing. "No, stop! What are you doing?! You're insane for doing this!" I pleaded desperately, trying to get the boss to change his mind about his decision.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH! HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD FEW YEARS OF YOUR LIFE KID! I'VE LIVED MINE TO THE FULLEST!" The Boss shouted with malice, as his skin was beginning to glow a bright red colour.

'What do I do!?' I thought in a panic, as I frantically looked around the room to see where I could avoid the incoming threat. My eyes then reached the small lake of water that the both of us had fallen into earlier. I sprinted towards the lake and jumped in to it and swam down as far as I could while holding my breath for as long as I could.

Seconds after I got into the water, I heard a faint booming noise coming from the surface. I looked up to see what it was, and I saw a large cloud of dust appear over the surface of the water. I then slowly swam up to get some air, and breached the surface of the water. I then took some deep breaths to inhale some much needed air after that dive there.

*cough, cough* I made it…

'Ugh, probably should have waited a bit until the dust cleared away.' I mused in my mind, as I waved my hand to move some of the dust away. I then swam out of the lake and back to the shore, to get out of the water.

Upon reaching dry land again, I walked over to where the boss was before exploding. When I got to where he was, there was a giant crater that had some fire around the edges of it. The stone inside of the crater had steam coming off of it, showing how hot it was.

'Dammit... Why'd he have to do that just there? I wasn't going to kill him or torture him, just hand him in to the Rune Knights...!' I sighed, with a frown on my face. 'What was all of that about a "Lord Shineva" back there? Was it his Master?' I thought in confusion. 'Well, I'm not getting any answers about those questions now.'

As I was thinking of all of these questions, a horrible truth was revealed to me. 'Wait! How am I going to get out of here?!' I thought with a panic. I hadn't though about this until now.

'I fell through the ceiling there, so I'm much deeper underground than I was before.' I then frantically looked around for a way out of the cavern, before my eyes caught something very interesting on the floor just I front of me.

I went over to see if it was what I thought it was. If it was, then I may get some answers after all.

I knelt over upon reaching and blew some of the stone dust on top of it away to see what it was. I picked it up and inspected it. It was the written document the boss was writing before he confronted me in his office upstairs! Chances were, it fell down here not too long after we started fighting, and landed after the explosion went off.

—

General Fujisawa

Our expedition to retrieve the Magnistone is taking longer than we first imagined. We have been in this forest for three days now, at the time in which I writing this letter. We have been trapping and capturing any and all creatures in the forest to see if they would lead us to the mythical creature that was rumoured to be living in this forest. Unfortunately, we have yet to find the creature. We have also heard rumours that an individual is also living in this forest, as such I have ordered my men to locate her in hopes she will lead us to the creature. I am aware that this is not the first time your men have been sent to try and retrieve the stone, it was around two years ago that you sent two grunts to obtain the Magnistone and they were arrested, before taking themselves out later in the night to avoid questioning. I aim to return the stone to where it belongs for the glory of Lord Shineva, and for all his—

—

'What in the!? The two criminals I fought last year were a part of this organisation?!' I thought with astonishment. 'Were they sent to try and find whatever this Magnistone is? Obviously they were stopped by Master Makarov before they could find it; did they just get distracted and burn down the village on the way there?'

'And who is this General Fujisawa, and Lord Shineva?! Are they the masterminds behind this whole operation?! What do they want with the Magnistone, heck what is the Magnistone for that matter?! Why did they think the Tonakai had it? Did they think he was guarding it or something?' These questions were racing through my head.

One thing I did notice on the parchment was that on the top right corner of it, there an emblem presumably meant to represent a certain group. I didn't recognise it, but it had a hexagonal shape and showed a faceless human knelt down on his knees, and was holding a dagger in his hands, with the hilt upwards.

'Arghhh! Why do things always have to be so complicated for me on these jobs!' I thought in anger, as I kicked a small stone with my boot sending it hurling across the cavern. I decided to pocket the parchment, thinking it may come in handy later.

I then remembered that I was stuck in this cavern with seemingly no way out, I quickly began to look around the cavern again, trying to find a way out. I had made my way over to where my Kaen sword had fallen to the floor and found that it was completely shattered into pieces.

'Guess I'll need a new one then…' I though, sighing upon seeing it.

I then noticed from the corner of my eye, a thin trickle of light coming from a wall nearby. I walked over to it and investigated it further. I saw that there was a very thin glint of light from behind the wall, that was coming through via a small crack the size of a keyhole.

I pocked my eye through the crack to see what was on the other side. I was instead, blinded by a sudden flash of light upon putting my eye to the keyhole.

I immediately pulled back my eye and began to think of a way to investigate that little entrance way further. Was it an exit that took me back outside? I then put my ear to the crack and listened carefully. I couldn't hear any wind, or birds – or anything for that matter.

'Where does lead then?' I wondered curiously.

I then felt inside the crack with my fingers to see how thick it was. I was relieved to see it was only a few centimetres thick from what I could feel. I then took out one of my swords and began to pry it into the crack, in an attempt to loosen some more of the stone away to open the hole a bit more.

This was somewhat successful. I was able to loosen a lot more stone, and I was now able to fit my whole hand through the hole. I then began to kick the area around the hole in an attempt to break away more of the stone wall around it. This was able to create a gap big enough to fit my whole head through. This did also cause a lot of light from the other side of the wall to come pouring into the cavern I was in.

I then closed my eyes, and stuck my head into the wall. Once I could feel that I was through, I angled my head to the ground and was just able to cover my eyes with my hands. I then slowly opened and closed my eyes so that they could get used to the bright light. Then, when I could keep them open without them being blinded, I removed my hands and looked up to see what on this side of the cave.

I nearly fainted if it were not for the bright light that was still shining on my face.

The cavern that I was looking at was one of of the most beautiful and stunning rooms I had ever seen in my life. There were cheery blossom trees scattered around the room, with a few small pools of water in the left and right of the room. There was lush green grass that covered the entire ground of the cavern, with only a stone pathway that led into the centre of the room.

As if that wasn't insane enough, I saw a massive stone monument in the centre of the cavern that was shaped like a Ziggurat Temple. I saw that the stone pathway I saw earlier led towards it. The temple was raised above the ground and towered over the trees. It had a staircase, that led up to the top where I could see something glowing brightly. Presumably, that was causing all the light.

Determined to break out of this room and into this new little enclave I had found, I began to kick away at the edges of the hole to make it bigger for me to get through. I didn't want to risk using a spell on the wall, as I was nervous that it may end up causing a cave-in due to how weak the wall is. I could easily destroy it with my feet, so there was no need to use any magic.

With a final kick, I was able to knock away enough stone for me to wiggle my way through the hole which was now much bigger. I stuck my head through the hole first, before using my legs to lift my body up, and then I wiggled my way through to the other side.

I crawled out through to the other side with me falling into the floor with a thump. I then got up and dusted my self off, before taking another look around the room.

'It's like no one's ever been here before. Was this place sealed off a long time ago, to not let anyone it?' I thought with amazement, as I looked all over the room. 'The big question is, how is there grass still growing in here?' I can't see any entrances or exits to this place other than the one I just made. So how would sunlight and fresh air getting in here?' I contemplated, as I put a hand on my chin to think.

My eyes then moved over to the Ziggurat in the centre of the room. 'Maybe that has the answers I'm looking for?' I decided with suspicion, as I made my way over to the large temple following the stone path.

I eventually reached the temple and began to climb the stairs on the side. There were stone statues of gargoyles on the side of the stairs as I climbed up. What was creepy about them was that I swore they were turning round to look at me when I wasn't looking at them. I continued the climb and eventually reached the last few steps to climb up.

The bright light that was coming from the top of the temple seemed to glow brighter than ever as I got closer to the top. This didn't dissuade me from my curiosity of what was at the top, so I continued to climb up while shielding my eyes with my arms.

I made it to the top of the Ziggurat, and I noticed that the bright light had completely disappeared from the top of the temple. I slowed lowered my arms and looked up to see what was causing the light up here on the temples peak.

My eyes gazed upon a brilliant necklace, that was held on top of a pedestal in the centre of the floor I was on. The pendent had a green jewel in the middle, that was a kite like shape. Around the jewel was gold which came around it and protected the sides from being damaged. There was a sliver chain that attached onto the bail.

The pendent was glowing and humming brightly as I approached it. I then wondered whether it would be smart to take the pendent from the pedestal it sat on. This thing had obviously been here for some time now – a good few years I reckoned, due to how clean and undisturbed this small cavern was. Perhaps even decades.

'Wait… is this jewel in the necklace the Magnistone those criminals were after?' I thought suddenly. It certainly looked valuable and precious by the design on it.

I then thought to myself deeply. If I left the pendent here, then there was a chance that more of that group would come back and actually find it, now that I had broken a hole in a wall that led here. But… if I did take it… it would mean that those criminals wouldn't find it.

I took a deep breath and slowly reached out my hand to touch the pendent. My hands were sweating due to how nervous I was, hopefully the Ziggurat wouldn't just blow up upon me taking the pendent from the pedestal. I quickly tapped my hand on the pendent to see if it was safe or not. Thankfully, my hand was uninjured and nothing unusual had happened around me.

'Well, moment of truth…'

I then gently lifted the pendent up and off the pedestal and put into my one remaining jacket pocket. I then immediately scanned the room to see if anything bad would happen, and if I potentially needed to make a sprint for it. Thankfully, nothing bad seemed to have happened.

'Guess I was panicking for nothing.' I realised with a chuckle, as I turned to leave the Ziggurat, going down the huge steps.

'Hang on. Wasn't the pendent lighting up the entire room? How is there still light in here then?' I realised suddenly, stoping on the stairs to think about that.

As I thought that, the Ziggurat began to shake suddenly with me almost falling of the stairs as I was caught by surprise. The temple then began to shake a lot more violently and began to break apart. With many of the pillars collapsing in on themselves.

I panicked at this sight and began to run down the stairs now - well I say run, when in actual fact I was trying not to fall over on the way down. I could hear the temple crumbling behind me as I continued to pace down the steps. Eventually I leaped off the stairs upon being relatively close to the bottom of them. I hit the ground with me landing on the grass to the side of the stone pathway. Thankfully, no bones were broken or sprained during that little fall there.

I looked back over me and saw that the entire temple had collapsed in on itself, presumably because I removed the pendent from the pedestal. 'Damn… Feel kinda bad for destroying such an old piece of architecture like that…' I sighed with a frown, as I stood up off the grass.

I then saw that all the nature in the room around me was suddenly begin it to wither up and die! The grass was shrivelling up and was turning black, while the trees were suddenly having all their leafs fall off and the trucks were turning black. It was a horrible and upsetting sight to see, especially with it happening so suddenly and in the span of a few seconds.

In less than a minute, all the nature in the cavern was now dead. The ponds were dried up, the grass was withered and the trees had no more leafs on them. The cavern was also in complete darkness which didn't help me that much.

I held up my Raito sword and lit up the room with its bright light to see around me. As I looked around the room, I saw that in the far corner past the ruins of the Zigguart, there was a strange stone wall with some carvings on it. I made my way over to it, making sure not to trip over any debris in my way. When I got there I held up my sword to get a closer look at the carving.

It showed two individuals with no faces, wearing powerful clothing. They had elegant robes and capes on their person, with thick boots on their feet. One of them had a long beard that made them look very old, while the other had a thin moustache. They both wore pointed hats, and were holding out their hands towards each other. It looked like they were both holding something.

I looked closer at their hands and saw that there was a empty socket in the wall, where it looked like something would be held in.

'Could it be…?' I had some serious doubt, as I pulled out the pendent from my pocket and held it up to the socket.

It was an identical shape to the socket on the wall.

With doubt, I then slotted the pendent into the wall socket, and it was a perfect fit. Suddenly the wall I was facing with the carvings on it began to open itself up as two half of the wall were moving left and right to open up a doorway for me to go through. I made sure to quickly pick back up the pendent, as it fell to the floor when the walls began to move.

When the doorway finished opening up, I saw a long passageway that led onwards, with some stairs at the end that led upwards.A way out.

'Thank god the stairs aren't leading downwards.' I thought with relief, as I looked around the room I was in one more time before heading into the passageway.

It was still pitch dark in there, so I had to light the way with my sword to see where I was going. I eventually came to the stairs and began to climb upward. They were in a spiral structure and were carved deep into a wall, so I couldn't see how far up they went. Nonetheless, I pushed onwards – or rather climbed upwards.

After a few minutes, I made it to the top of the stairs and came out on yet another passageway.

'Ugh! Doesn't this cave ever end?!' I was beginning to get frustrated at these never ending corridors.

My anger was quickly cut short however, as I saw in the far end of this passageway, what looked like sunlight shining in! From where I was it was a thin bright glow, but it was so satisfying to see light at the end of the tunnel. I had been down in this cave for what felt like an eternity (even though it was maybe only around two hours…)

I ran to the end of the tunnel I was in to hopefully see the blue sky and shining sun. As I got closer to the end of the tunnel the sunlight began to shine brighter, mainly because it was so dark in here and I hadn't seen daylight in ages. After running to the end of the tunnel, I was gobsmacked to see that there were some iron bars preventing me from exiting the tunnel I was in.

'Some iron bars aren't going to stop me!'

"Ice Beam!" I cried, sending a blast of ice to the bards which blew them open, allowing me to finally exit this cave.

As I exited the cave I was hit by a lovely cool breeze of air. It took me a few seconds for my eyes to readjust to actual daylight again. When I could clearly see what was in front of me, I found that I was on a cliff face overlooking some fields, not to far ahead of the fields I could see the ocean with nothing else in sight. I looked to my left and right and saw that there were mountains to each side respectively.

"What the!? Where am I?!" I shouted out in shock, upon not recognising where I was.

'Did I come out on the other side of the mountain range that overlooks Magnolia?' I wondered, as I looked behind me. Of course I saw nothing but a rocky wall that went up for several feet, but presumably behind me was the east forest, and Magnolia not too far from that.

'How am I gonna get back now?' I thought in defeat, as I sat down on the cliff edge and looked over at the ocean, mainly to rest, as all the adrenaline that had been pumping through me for the last hour or so had finally worn off.

I looked around the cliff face I was on and saw that there was a pathway just below me that I could possibly climb down to that would take me across the mountain range, and loop me back to the east forest.

When I had rested for a few minutes, and climbed down the rock face and made it down to the pathway, I then followed it across the connecting mountain and it took me to the mountain peek after 30 minutes of walking.

While standing in the mountain peek I was able to see Magnolia to the right a good few kilometres away to my left. To the right was the East Forest, though it was just below me and not several kilometres away. I was also able to see the Fiore railway line stretch all the way out past Magnolia. I think I could see Oak Town and Hargeon in the distance, though they were little specks in the distance. I could also see Orchid Village and a few other mountains in the distance.

'Man… I should have brought a flag.' I thought with a glum face. In any case, I couldn't stay here any longer as it was quite chilly up here. I may be an ice wizard, but that didn't mean that I was super resistant to the cold air.

I then was able to spot a pathway (or at least it was the closest thing to a pathway on this mountain) that led down a fair distance of the mountain I was on. From there I could probably try to scale my way down. I then climbed down the path, while being careful not to fall down, and then reached the end of the path in which I was forced to scale down the cliff.

I might have gone back up the pathway to find another way down, but I was getting hungry and it was getting a little late. I saw earlier that the sun had passed the mid way point in the sky and was beginning to set. I was running out of time, so I had to get of this cliff quickly before it got to dark to see where I was going.

I was able to scale down the cliff, while making sure to test the rocks and occasionally use my Ice Magic and my Henshin spell to help me get a good footing. I would have used my Ice Magic and Henshin to just make a pathway down to the ground, but I was getting a little bit low on magic power, and being hungry doesn't help replenish your magic power.

After a good few minutes of rock climbing, I finally touched down on grass and had made it back to into the East Forest! Conveniently, I wasn't that far away from the cave entrance that led to where the men we-

'Aw crap! Those criminals are still in the cave!' I recalled, as I suddenly remembered about the henchmen that I had fought a few hours ago. 'I didn't tie them up cause I thought I wouldn't be that long in the cave!' I thought with anger at my mistake.

I was then forced to run back into the cave to see if the criminals were still there and hopefully unconscious. When I made it to the main cavern, I was horrified to see that they were all gone! 'Dammit! They must have woken up when I was down there fighting the boss. I bet it was the explosion that woke them up.' I realised, as I scanned the room to see if anyone was still there.

To my disappointment, no one was still in the cavern. I then began to head back out of the cave and back out into the forest. When I exited the cave, I began to head back in the direction of Porlyusica's house. However as I was walking a terrible thought hit me.

'Wait! Didn't one of their men go out there and try to track down Porlyusica?! If I was in that cave for a few hours… then they might have found her!' I thought in fear, as I began to sprint to where she lived. My feet were practically skipping off the ground as I ran to her treehouse.

'I may not have magic when I tried to save you two years ago, but I have magic now! This time I'll make a difference!' I thought with determination as I began to see her house in the distance.

I came up to her house and immediately sprinted up the stairs and opened the door and looked around the room to see if Porlyusica was still there.

Before I could even think of where she was, I was hit on the head by something metal causing a wham sound to echo throughout my head. I then heard a gasp, and the sound of something drop to the floor. I slowly turned round to see who had hit me, as I could feel myself falling into unconsciousness.

I was certainly surprised to be hit by my client of all people.

"Wha-? Porlyusica?" I muttered weakly with me collapsing to the floor after saying that. I swore I could hear her panicking as she quickly ran over to her cupboard before my eyes closed.

'Not… how I thought… this would end…' I remarked as I fell unconscious.

And bam! That's another chapter done and dusted! Feel free to leave a review of your thoughts.

Cade has finally completed the quest he was sent on (sort of?) We got to see quite a few things in this chapter. The first being a fight between Cade and a giant furr- sorry, Werewolf! We then got to see the mention of a General Fujisawa and Lord Shineva, just who could they be, eh?

Finally we got to see the ancient Ziggurat and the pendant that was located on it. Was it the Magnistone that the criminals were after?

These my friends, are questions for another time. I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!

PS: This is my longest chapter yet with over 9000 words! We also hit over 50 followers, which makes me very happy that so many people are able to enjoy this story! Thank you so much!