Yuurei was with Renjji as the duo was making their way to Worth Woodsea. The Seraphim wasn’t sure what the conditions would be for the forest, but he hoped that they weren’t too late. He would move quickly as he was one of the fastest mages in Fiore by comparison.

“Yuu, we will save the forest. I’m sure whatever the damage is, a nature mage could fix it.” He said to Yuurei to make sure he didn’t worry.

The hunter would hear this and he would shake his head. He was worried alright, but he knew that it had to be stopped. Migi would hear their conversation and he figured he would comment on it.

“What’s so important about this place anyways? It’s just trees and animals from what I’m hearing.” He said to the two of them.

Yuurei would hear his arm and he would shake his head at that comment.

“You fool; that place is Yuu’s home and where his parents live in. It’s where my best friend lives as well. We need to make sure nothing happens to the forest for them and for the people who live there.” He said to Migi.

Migi would hear this and he would stay quiet. He was learning new things about these two; he was new to the group and it was not something he had been accustomed to. The duo would soon make their way to the forest, and when they got there they would see the wildfire spreading across the area. It was insane, but the hunter could only think of one thing it could be. This had to be magic, so he decided to start things off.

“We deal with the fire first; then after that, we go after who caused this mess.” He said to Renji.

Renji would hear this and he would nod at this; he figured Yuurei was going to try something, so he hoped that it would work. The Seraphim had gotten his gun and his giant fork. This was going to allow him to test if he was right on this matter. He would use his spell to suck the fire from below with his gun. It would start taking the fire and it would start consuming the majority of it. When Yuurei saw this, he knew what he was going to do.

The Seraphim would use his fork and he would activate the consumption spell. This would take a huge portion of the fire on the trees and it would start dematerializing. He saw this and he would consume the fire. He would burp after he was done as he would look at the fire that had remained.

“Okay, so it is magical, so we can get rid of it with my weapons.” He said to Renji.

The Exceed was happy to hear this because he was pretty sure Yuurei had a few of those weapons in his arsenal. Migi was impressed as well, but he knew that this man was a powerful mage that wield weapons as his magical source.

510

There was a brief moment when one of the personalities was trying to take over, but Brone Heavyaxe had fought it back, demanding for his control to remain, for he wasn't going to give up his body, especially not during a quest that needed to be handled. He rode on the back of his tempest wolf Geri while several troops of Paradise Dawn members rode behind him on carts and horses; though some troops remained behind at Rush Valley to continue helping the citizens who had suffered a raid at the hands of Chaos Eclipse, a dark guild.

Ashe and smoke was the first thing the dwarf noticed other than the forest itself. Huginn returned and flew along side the running wolf, "Yuurei arrived and was able to absorb the flames, so the fire seems to be magical".

"Better for us, I'll just use spellcleaver" the dwarf said as his secondary right hand grasped the hilt of the green axe that was strapped to his back.

"Be careful, the forest is in a vulnerable state right now, and remember that there are elves who call this place home" Gnicholas said as he poked his head out of the white cowl behind Brone.

"Ye don't have to tell me, I know that already" The dwarf said as he readied himself to dismount.

Once they reached the forest, they stopped some yards away from the nearest fire. Geri growled as he hesitated, the intense heat was overwhelming for him, for he was use to the cold mountains north. When Brone dismounted, he patted Geri and told him to stay out of the forest until the matter was settled. Then he walked up to the raging infernal that was engulfing the trees. With one mighty swing of his green axe, the magical blaze vanished, leaving behind the ashen trees and plant life within darkness.

Given the time of day was already the evening, the troops, whom most of them were mainly human, couldn't see into the dark forest, so they lit lanterns. Brone turned to face his troops and told them to spread out and do what they could to quench the flames and if possible, find those who were causing the fires and stop them. The troops saluted and made their moves, departing from the general.

"So more pyromancers causing wildfires" Benimaru pointed out with a sigh.

"Same magic that caused the wildfire in Rush Valley, I'm guessing" Brone said as he placed a hand on the bark of one of the trees, charred black by the flames. The dwarf didn't have a connection to plants like he did with the stone of the earth, but he could assume that a number of the plants were charred in this area had perished. He needed to act fast, so he sent out both his ravens to help lead him to the next fires. He ran after them, Spellcleaver in hand, ready to stop the blazes and save the forest.

501

Yuurei would move through the forest now as he had gotten rid of fire from his immediate area. The Seraphim would see more fire everywhere and he would shake his head. Who had been causing all of this? He didn’t understand why the plant life here was being harmed that way. It angered him that someone was doing this, and he was going to make them pay for this.

The Seraphim would make it to more fire, and he would look at it. This was hearty breaking, and it was pissing him off right now. He would look at his gun and he would start using the ability of his gun to consume the fire as well. It was sucking up the fire that was in front of him like a vacuum. This was what he could do right now, and it would take a lot of the fire out with just that gun. He knew that the fire had destroyed a lot of the trees, so he started shooting water from his gun. It would do more damage to the trees, but it would at least take the fire out.

Renji would see this, and he could see how much this had hurt Yuurei.

“Don’t worry Yuu; we will get someone with nature magic to regrow the trees faster.” He told him as he was giving him hope.

Yuurei would hear this and he would nod as he understood that, but this hurt him.

Yuurei would switch his fork and his gun though and now he was wearing his Yin and Yang gauntlet. The hunter would move around the area, and he would look for more fire. He was making sure that he would get the fire out of the forest before he would do anything else. He would put himself in the middle of the fire once again. When he did that, he would create a taijitu symbol under him and this would cause an unbalance within the magical property of this fire.

He would be able to get rid of all the fire that was around him within twenty-five meters. He would sigh with relief as he was wondering how much fire was going through the forest. He would shout out loud as he didn’t like this at all. He would feel a tingling sensation on his neck though as someone would attack him. He would turn around to see it was fire, and he would shake his head. He was going to dodge it, but instead, he punched it with his Yin gauntlet. The Seraphim would cause the fire spell to disappear, and he would look over to the guy who attacked him.

“Are you the person who caused all this fire?” He asked him wondering what he would say.

“I’m just a small number of fire mages that are setting this place ablaze. We are here to destroy the North and make Paradise Dawn and anybody within Fiore disappointing in not helping the North.” He said to him as he was confident in taking on Yuurei.

Yuurei would hear this and he would crack his knuckles. This guy was going to get it and they were going to pay for what they were doing to his home.

542|1052

Brone walked through the forest, trying to peer through the immediate darkness, looking for any source of light. He figured the area he was currently in was randomly set ablaze and abandoned by the one who caused it. Said person probably moved on to the next area to continue their work, though he wasn't sure what the reason for this destruction was.

"It's possible they are trying rebel against the leaders of the north" the voice of Minori echoed into the dwarf's mind, though he had ignored it, trying not to pay any attention to the voices that had no body of their own.

"What does it matter why they are doing it; just kill them if you want them to stop" said the voice of Ranulf.

"Knowing why they are causing this destruction can lead us to clues on how to stop them" Brone said out loud.

"True, but we have no hints on the matter, just that they are a Dark Guild" the gnome said as he crawled out of the white cowl of the dwarf's cloak and sat upon his shoulder. He wasn't aware that Brone was actually speaking to the voices in his mind, but he chose not to divulge that as he continues to walk through the woods.

"And when it comes to those with evil souls or even corrupted morality, then little to no reason is ever needed" Benimaru chuckled. Though he voiced it as a joke, Brone acknowledged it as a good point. He wondered if they were thinking too deep into the reasoning.

Suddenly, Huginn and returned and landed upon Brone's other shoulder, "There is another fire in this direction" he said before he took off to the sky. Brone quickly chased the raven, trying to keep pace with him, but it was proving a bit difficult while he was moving through shrubs and jumping over exposed tree roots. The dwarf was not use to traversing through forest areas though he has done so in the past, his true favored terrain was the mountainous areas and underground, but he couldn't complain about it then, so he made due and did his best to follow the bird.

Eventually he had spotted flickering light which became a roaring fire. Like the fire back in Rush Valley, this was being spread by a giant feline made of fire. When the dwarf entered the area, the fire elemental took notice of him and pounced in his direction, but Brone was quick to counter and cut the feline in half with his Spellcleaver, causing the fire elemental to vanish along with the fire in the immediate area, causing it to go dark.

Before the dwarf could speak, light was conjured, bringing his attention to a mage donning a red robe and a dark red mask, "Brone, the Shield of Dawn, I presume" the mage's voice seemed playfully condescending.

"To who do I owe the pleasure?" Brone asked as he drew forth his golden axe in his other hand.

"'To whom'" The mage said as he held a fire that was levitated above his open palm.

"That's what I'm asking" Brone replied as he took a battle stance. Gnicholas brought his hand to his face as he was embarrassed of Brone not realized that the mage was correcting his grammar.

563 | 1,064

The guy would look at Yuurei and be wondering who he was. He couldn’t get a good look at his face; he was covering it with a long cloth. It had wrapped around his face multiple times. Still, he figured that if he was here then it meant that he was a part of Paradise Dawn or someone in the North trying to get in their way. He didn’t care because he figured he could handle him, and if not then he would have multiple allies close by to lend him a helping hand.

The Seraphim would look at this guy; he was wondering what his plan was next. He waited for him to make a move, but their standoff was just that. The hunter figured he would make the first move then and he would run to the enemy in front of him. Yuurei was fast and the man could see that right as he took the first step. He would summon a fire barrier in front of him and at the same time he would dodge.

His barrier would disperse into nothing as it would seem like he was right about that. Still, it gave him a second to avoid that lethal attack. He was going to have to keep himself out of this man’s range if he wanted to beat him. Yuurei would see that he didn’t get taken out right there, and he would shake his head.

“You think you can honestly beat me? Even if you did manage to beat me you can’t beat Chaos Eclipse.” He said to Yuurei as he shot out fire magic from where he was.

While he was doing this, the fire mage would activate another spell. This one would allow him to fly into the air using fire on his feet as propulsion. Yuurei could see this and he could tell that it would do damage to the environment if they continued their fighting. He was going to have to take him out quickly; his Yin gauntlet would disappear and he would have his Stormcaller in his hand. He would look at his bow and figured striking this guy would be for the best.

He would pull the string and he would shoot the arrow that magically appeared into the air. The fire mage was confused about what was going on, but soon enough he would feel it. A shock of lightning energy fully powered up by light magic would shock his body. Yuurei would have a smirk on his face as he wouldn’t be able to hear anything. He wouldn’t even know that the attack would continue to go on.

Yuurei’s attack would capture the attention of other people though and they would look around and start rushing in that direction. The fire mage would shake it off and he would look at Yuurei. It was then he would start through multiple magic spells at Yuurei. The hunter would see this and he would be ready to avoid them. The attacks were coming in hot, but the man would notice he couldn’t hear anything.


516|1568

Brone and the masked man stood before one another, watching carefully for the other's first move, for they knew there was no bypassing the other without a fight.

"You can call me 'Igna"" said the mage as he he conjured forth a large wave of fire to brighten the area.

"I don't care what ye call yerself" Brone said as he stalking walking towards his opponent while baring his Spellcleaver in his left hand and his golden axe of Beowulf in his right. The immediate area had a breeze of cold air brush against the heat, causing the fire to flicker. Igna seemed a bit concerned as he moved his hands to increase the fire further; it was but a few seconds as the dwarf continued to walk forward, but he recognized that the temperature had slightly dropped, despite the fire he was producing was fighting against the cold.

"I suppose you have some kind of magical ability to produce ice magic?" Igna asked with a smug tone, trying to keep his confidence. Brone didn't answer him, but ran forward, his axes at the ready to strike the enemy down. Igna took a step back in surprise and conjured forth a wall of fire that erupted before him to stop the dwarf from advancing forward, but the dwarf expected this and was able to cut the wall, causing it to disperse as if it was never made in the first place.

Brone had closed the gap and was ready to slice the enemy's head off, but Igna was quick; a column of fire erupted around him, engulfing the pyromancer. When the dwarf cut the column with spellcleaver, the column vanish but Igna wasn't there.

A roar came from Brone's left, a lion made of fire rushed at the dwarf. The dwarf lunged back just in time. As he stood up, he eyed the fire-lion that began to slowly pace, watching him. As for Igna, the dwarf knew the mage was hiding behind a nearby tree; to his advantage, his War God instinct allowed him to be aware of the caster and it's creation.

The lion pounced at him and Brone reacted, cutting the fire with the green blade, causing it to disperse, sending the battle into darkness again. The dwarf turned on his heel and rushed towards the tree he knew the mage was hiding behind. But before he could get to the tree, another animal of fire was conjured, this time a giant bird was sent flying towards him intentionally to keep him away from the tree.

The dwarf ducked out of the way beneath the bird. He knew if he keeps destroying the fire elements, the mage would just create another. He knew he needed to keep focus on the caster and not allow himself to slow. He had dealt with this tactic before during a sparring match with the Blue Informant. Luckily the dwarf learned of his past mistake and adapted.

Igna was concerned.

500 | 1,564

Yuurei would see that this man was launching multiple fire spells at him. He figured he would make it go away, so he would switch to his Midas Gauntlet. One of the first weapons he had gained. He would punch at the multiple spells as he dispersed the use of all of them. He would look at the man in front of him with a smirk on his face. The man was impressed and worried, this man just got rid of all of his attacks without a problem.

The hunter was ready to continue his fight as another attack from above would clash with the man he was fighting against. This time it would cause the man to stumble a bit; he was hurt more than he expected, and he would notice that he couldn’t move. Yuurei also saw this and knew what had happened. He would make his move and he would rush straight to the fire mage. The man would become nervous and he would throw all his spells that he could. Still, he would only be able to activate a few, and from then Yuurei would disperse them all with his gauntlet.

He would punch the man right in his chest. It would cause the man to fall to the ground as he gasped the last bit of air he could. The Seraphim would sigh with relief, but then he would feel the vibration of people coming. He figured the man wasn’t lying about his allies, and the lightning attack from earlier must have gotten a bunch of their attention.

He would soon feel danger and he knew where it was coming from. Yuurei would disperse the incoming attacks as it was more fire magic. The hunter would look at the people here and he would shake his head. He was going to have to take them all on and make sure that he did this quickly. He couldn’t allow this to drag on too long. They would all see that their comrade had fallen and it had gotten them angry. Still, they figured with their numbers they wouldn’t lose.

Yuurei would shake his head as he would switch from his bow to Samehada. His gauntlet would stay for a bit, but he would change it to Gae Bolg soon after. He would look at the people that he had to defeat and figured that there was no need to hold back. The battle would begin and he would be the first to make his move. Yuurei would rush straight to the enemies and he would swing his weird wrapped-up sword as he shreds them to pieces with the blade. They would fall to the ground, and when others tried to get him from behind Migi would intervene. He would create two long appendages from the back of his hand and it would slice two more mages.

They would drop to the ground and Yuurei would look at the ones that remained. They didn’t know who Yuurei was, but they were starting to understand that he wasn’t a push-around.

512|2080

The fire bird had turned in it's flight path in order to chase the dwarf, but Brone was already at the tree where Igna was hiding. The fire mage leaped from behind the tree as the dwarf had appeared and swung his axe, nearly cutting him. Igna conjured forth half a dozen sparks that flew towards Brone. He was able to negate one of the sparks by slapping it with Spellcleaver, but he didn't have the time to do the same for the five other sparks as they closed the distance and exploded on impact as they rammed into the dwarf.

"One of the weapons of the Seven Stalkers" Igna growled as he ran further back in order to gain more distance. He was a scholarly fire mage hired by the Chaos Eclipse guild. In his time, he had learned of the Seven Stalkers, who were also known as Mage-Hunters that wielded magical weapons forged to fight against magic users, "I heard Paradise Dawn was in possession of one of the magical weapons from the Midian Circle, I just wasn't sure who or what" he called out as he hid behind another tree.

"I don't tend to showboat my weapons about" Brone said as he walked out of the smoke cloud that was kicked up due to the explosions. Though he had taken the brunt of the explosions, his armor had protected him with an extra layer of ice conjured for more defense. He knew Spellcleaver's origin; as a blacksmith taught by his clan, he knew well to have respect for his weapons and armor by learning of their history. Because of the fact that Spellcleaver was a one-of-a-kind weapon, despite being an attempt to recreate one of the weapons of the legendary 9 heroes, the dwarf didn't want to show it off, for he knew that would bring unwanted attention to the guild.

"I'm sure once I defeat you, that'll blade will fetch a great price" Igna laughed as he peeked from behind the tree. Brone's instincts provided him the location of Igna, but no matter how close he got, the fire mage would continue to pull out tricks to keep him at bay.

The brightness of the fire bird drew the dwarf's attention. As the bird tried to strike at him, Brone swung around and cut the bird in half with Spellcleaver, causing it to vanish. Igna was ready to cast another spell, but unbeknownst to him, Gnicholas, who had dropped down from Brone's shoulder some time ago, had hidden himself in a shrub. He took this moment to cast Shroud of Darkness, conjuring a globe of magical darkness upon Igna.

"What happened!?" he cried out as he conjured a ball of flame to try and dispel the darkness, but no matter what fire he summoned forth, the darkness would swallow it's light. Brone, however, was able to see through the magical darkness due to his dwarven lineage, so he took advantage of this situation, ran in and struck his axe upon the unsuspecting fire mage, knocking him out and leaving him to bleed.

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Yuurei would continue to stare at them as he was waiting for them to make their moves. They would look at each other and then they would start sprinting towards him. He figured that would be the case and he would happily oblige. Samehada would unwrap itself as it smell the mana that was coming from them. It was hungry and it could tell that Yuurei had used a lot of his mana on these people. The hunter would feel a bit weaker, but it was nothing that bothered him. He would accept this and he would swing his blade that had revealed his monstrous form. They would use their fire magic and Yuurei would bring forth this Creed armor to take the attack head-on. He would rather do that than allow the forest to be destroyed completely.

It was then he would make it to his first target. He would swing Samehada and it would shred through them like butter. Yuurei would feel mana coming back to him and he would continue with the fight. The Seraphim knew this was the best way for him to feel better and press on without taking a break. He would make it to the rest of them before they could use their spells. He had been weakened, but it wasn’t enough to make them a challenge. He cut through them like he was wildfire spreading across the forest around him.

Yuurei would watch them drop to the ground as they could not fathom the power that came from this man. They didn’t know who he was as he was hiding his identity and their guild master would be surprised when he finally bumped into Yuurei today. There were about two men remaining and they could tell they were at a loss. Yuurei’s cape had revealed a little bit of his face and one of the two remaining had seen it.

His eyes widen when they saw who it was and decided it was best to flee. He needed to tell his master about this. Yuurei would see this and he would shake his head as he would toss Gae Bolg toward him. He didn’t stop there as he would rush straight to the other remaining fire mage. His eyes widen when he saw the quick speed behind him.

He would close his eyes and Yuurei would swing Samehada horizontally and take this man’s life without hesitation. He would fall to the ground and Yuurei would look at the man running away. He would disperse his sword from his hand, and he would shake his head. The man would see that he wasn’t being chased by Yuurei and he would smile, but then a spear would thrust right into him and he would fall straight to the floor.

“Alright we hopefully, took down all of the mages around here. Let’s check to make sure everything is fine and then head to Orchidia. It is the one place we haven’t checked, but I figured they would be there too.” Yuurei said to Migi and Renji as he walked away and his spear returned to his hand.

522|2602

[exit]

Brone stood over the fire mage as he bled out. Gnicholas had walked up to him after he made sure the fighting had come to an end. "Are we going to let him die?" the gnome asked as he looked down at the fire mage.

"Many lives were in danger because of his wildfire; if ye don't want to die, then don't raise a weapon with the intent to kill" Is all Brone said before he turned about and began searching for the next light source which would indicate another forest fire. Ranulf's voice echoed in the dwarf's mind, laughing as he agreed with his statement. Brone didn't want to acknowledge him, hoping his assertive answer wasn't influenced by the barbaric personality. Gnicholas didn't reply, nor did Benimaru say a word, whether to agree with him or side with the gnome, so he wasn't sure if he was in the right, so he put that matter to the back of his mind so he could focus on the quest.

Huginn flew down from between the clustered branches of the trees. He gave Brone the directions to the next wildfire, to which the dwarf immediately ran off towards that direction. When he had entered the vicinity of the blaze, he quickly canceled the magical flame which soon called forth the attention two fire mages who were quick to attack. Brone didn't want to waste anymore time by talking, so whenever one of the fire mages tried to get a word out of him, he would simply ignore it and rush at them, swinging his axes.

The mages would conjure forth different arrays of fire base spells to try and overwhelm the dwarf after they discovered he possessed the legendary Spellcleaver. Brone was agile enough to avoid the spells that he couldn't negate in time. Though he was a tank in his own right, he didn't want to risk destroying his armor, at least not too soon when the night was still young and the dark guild's influence was wide spread as far as he knew.

Things started taking a turn against him when he spotted two more fire mages arriving at the scene. They must have noticed the battle and decided to quickly aide their allies. Brone intended on hiding his extra arms at least for the moment, but such a difficult situation needed his all. He summoned forth his two spears to his extra two hands, though he wasn't able to use them without getting close to the mages who had made sure to keep their distance anyway they could. Eventually, Brone was angered enough to call forth the magic within his golden spear, causing him to transform into the eleven foot tall werelion. The fire mages were thrown off by the sudden change, which was enough time for Brone to use his increased speed to close the gap between them and cut them all down.

As he reverted back to normal, he spotted Muninn flying down to him, an indication that Yuurei had made an order.

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[Exit]