"I swear...this is such a stupid plan..." Ace grumbled to himself as he entered the mines with Deuce, Grim and Chrome. Tsunami and Skull were waiting just outside the entrance for when the four would lure the monster out of the mines and into the open where they could deal with it properly.

"oh shush, it's a better plan than what we could have come up with and you know it" Deuce whispered back quietly as they progressed deeper into the mines and towards where the magestone was, where the monster was just further up away from the magestone.

"both of you shush" Chrome whispered at the two of them and Grim nodded in agreement, even he understood that silence was needed at this crucial point in the plan, if they were noticed too soon than the whole plan could crumble down around them in a mess, which is not what they wanted right now.

The group of four kept moving further into the mine while being as quiet as possible, they just needed to get to the stone, and get the monster's attention before making a run for the entrance.

Simple right?

Yeah...no

"shit, shit, shit" Ace cursed as they ran ahead of the monster while dodging it's pickaxe that it kept swinging at them

"go, go" Deuce spoke as he clutched the magestone as the four ran with the monster closing in behind them.

Chrome looked behind her at how close it was, she knew Tsunami wanted her to try and limit how much of her flames she used...but right now it was kind of crucial.

Just as the pickaxe was about to swing down, she cast an illusion of vines snagging the pickaxe and stopping it from hitting them as they gained ground, only once they were close to the entrance did she undo the illusion and cause the monster to continue chasing after them.

"come on...just a bit more" Ace spoke through pants as they reached the entrance and ran a bit further before stopping and looking at the entrance, just in time to see the monster burst out of the mines in a rage.

"give...back...the stone!" the beast roared in anger as it swung it's pickaxe at them which they dodged enough to not get scrapped..

"stone...is...MINE!" the monster roared before it screamed in pain from a sudden burst of amber flames coming from beside it and Chrome smiled sharply as she saw her sky having gained a vantage point with her hands blazing with flames.

Skull smirked as he pulled out his daggers and coated them in his flames which caused more daggers to appear before he tossed them at the monster while Tsunami dashed around and kept blasting it with her flames

"boys!" Tsunami called and both Ace and Deuce nodded

"summon cauldron!" Deuce cried as a massive cauldron appeared and dropped on the monster's head while Ace used wind magic to help with Grim's fire and cover the monster's whole body in fire.

"Chrome! hold it down!" Tsunami called and Chrome nodded as she summoned her trident and twirled it around

"right bossu!" the mist spoke as she spun her trident again as vines appeared and held the monster down even as her eyebrows furrowed from the extent she was using, she was by no means weak. Not at all.

She was far from weak, but she was also focusing on keeping her organs around

"Tsu!" Skull called and Tsunami nodded sharply as her gloves appeared in a flare of fire covering her hands as she dashed forward towards the monster, flames decorating her hands before she skidded to a stop and summoned her flames even more.

"X-BURNER!" Tsunami called a massive pillar of powerful flames burst from her hand and hit the monster dead on.

"I forgot she can make that more powerful..." Skull murmured as he watched the fire hit the monster and how it screamed as they kept hitting it as well from all directions.

"phew" Chrome sighed in relief as the monster dissolved into nothing, leaving behind a single black rock, the mist would have collapsed if Skull hadn't been there to catch her

"easy...easy i've got you" Skull spoke softly and Tsunami ran over and looked her mist over in worry and concern

"i'm ok bossu" Chrome spoke softly with a smile upon her face and Tsunami narrowed her eyes

"if you're sure" she sighed softly and nodded before she looked at Ace and Deuce who were also looking at Chrome in concern.

The three shared a look and Chrome looked at Ace and Deuce

"...my organs are fake" Chrome spoke softly and both of them stiffened

"My organs are illusions which I willed into existence" she continued and she could see how Ace and Deuce got even more tense and they moved closer

"...what?" Deuce whispered in horror and the three flame users nodded

"...that's why Grim uses magic in my place because I need to focus on keeping my organs around" Chrome explained quietly and Ace clenched his fists

"...I'm sorry" Ace apologised as he bowed his head to Chrome and Tsunami hummed softly as she watched how guilty he looked, probably assuming she had been too lazy to use her own magic.

"it's alright, you two didn't know...nobody really knows" Skull huffed softly with a smirk at the two who nodded at his words

"yeah..." Deuce trailed off and they looked down, still feeling guilty and Chrome smiled softly as she reached forward and touched both their heads

"it's ok" she told them with a smile before she looked at the magestone in Deuce's hands

"we have the magestone...let's get back to campus" chrome spoke softly and the others agreed with a nod.

"Grim spit that out" Tsunami scolded when she saw Grim eating the black rock and the monster pouted

"But it's yummy" Grim huffed after he had eaten the rock and Tsunami could tell this probably wasn't good...

"honestly, you need to not eat weird things off the ground" Tsunami huffed as she picked Grim up and the grou of six headed back to school.

Crowley looked up and almost seemed surprised to see the six people entering his office, he was even more surprised to see the magestone they had actually manged to get from the abandoned mines.

"I see you have retrieved the magestone" he spoke as he watched them get closer to his desk and Deuce set the stone down on his desk

"we have" Ace smirked smugly and Tsunami sighed softly

"indeed, now will you undo their expulsion?" Tsunami asked the headmage as she looked him directly in the eyes of his mask.

Crowley went stiff, he knew that look in her eyes all to well, he had seen that look before and he was almost positive this female in front of him was related to the only other female student to ever pass through NRC's halls, he just couldn't find proof. Not yet at least.

"ahem...yes i shall since you managed to retrieve the magestone! your explosions shall be rescinded and you both will not be expelled" Crowley told Ace and Deuce who seemed to almost collapse in relief when he said that.

"thank you headmage" Deuce spoke in relief and Skull's eyes flickered over the desk of the headmage, as if he had an idea that Crowley had already almost finished the paperwork on the chance they hadn't completed the mission of finding the magestone, which the cloud found slightly irksome, but he could kind of see where the headmage was coming from...to a degree.

"you are free to go now" Crowley dismissed them after he had cleared his throat and he watched as the group of six left, he sighed in relief at least until the portrait of the founder of Ignihyde narrowed his eyes and spoke for once in the last few years

"...that man with the purple hair...he owes me an apology" the portrait of the lord of the underworld spoke and Crowley startled, the last time he had heard them speak was a few years ago.

"...huh?" crowley asked in surprise in shock just like the other portraits had until the king of beasts sighed

"is he the one who?" the king of beasts asked and the lord of the underworld nodded

"yeah...he is" and suddenly the other portraits of the founders blinked before nodding in understanding.

Crowley just looked completely confused and also concerned about why one of the first years would owe the lord of the underworld an apology of all things.