The Fourth Musketeer... and the Fifth, and the Sixth.

The light that suddenly came up from Avalan was bright, nearly blinding but Aayla could find the warmth in it... when the rain started to fall, she couldn't help but smile, and let the tears she had been holding back fall from her cheeks. She loved this rain, and hated it all at the same time.

She made sure not to wipe at her face, there was no point, it was raining, so no one would be able to tell her own tears had fallen as well...

"Good... he stopped moving..."
She said, trying to hold back a sniffle as a thick fog began to emit from her body, as if the falling rain had suddenly hit an extremely hot surface. The fog spread out to cover the are surrounding the trapped dark mages in a 3m by 3m field. Aayla raised her arms to both sides of her body and closed her eyes, concentrating on changing the temperature of the water particles now hanging in the air. She needed to slow down their bodies, therefore, she needed to cool them down.

She began to shiver lightly as she dropped the temperatures of the water that clung to their clothes, dropping it more and more until the fog began to form ice particles on their skin and clothes... their noses would begin to turn blue as frostbite slowly began to set it.

It wasn't without it's side effect however, as Aayla continued to shiver and shudder, attempting to manipulate the water in her own body to keep herself warm... bu it was difficult when she was trying to do the exact opposit to her enemies.

Kiersa focused on keeping their leader bound whilst the other two handled the combat. Jurgen twisted and writhed in his chains even as Cirven slashed at him with blade and fire, and Aayla began to freeze everything in the room. “Quite the pair you lot are eh?” he sneered. “A girl with a thing for BDSM who can make it rain, a pointy eared swordsmen with fire tricks, and another girl who likes to give the cold shoulder…” he mocked. “This is what Fiore sends after me? I’d be insulted if I wasn’t going to kick your backsides.” He said as he began to teleport out of the bounds holding him. Kiersa gasped as the chains fell to the floor, and she whirled around, recalling how he came from behind her. “Stigmata of Damocles, Double!” she intoned, the twin blades of holy light surging forth to strike at… nothing.

She felt a sharp punch to her back that the armour absorbed for the most part and she glared at the dark wizard. “Tsk tsk tsk. Didn’t anyone teach you it was bad to run with sharp objects there girly?” he asked with a smirk. Kiersa ran through her mind quickly as she tried to figure out what to do before sighing. “Aayla, Cirven, deal with this guy… I’ll handle his men.” She called out, already racing over towards the frozen men, slashing through one of them before they could recover from the cold. The nun then slashed at another, taking them down, frowning as the remaining two began to recover and focused on her.

Spoiler:

He had to jump back further as the mist his sister had summoned started to come around him and almost was used to chill him along with the enemy. It was like she was trying to hit him and stop him from really being able to attack the enemy in the mist. "Damn it, Aalya!" He yelled out as he jumped out from the mist and turned to look at his sister. His view on the rest of the things around him were put as a last priority so the fact that Kiersa was distracting Jugren and the other men were recovering.

"Are you so stuck up in your own stupid self that you attacked me on purpose!? You do know that I can't attack them while they are in this mist either, right?! Damn it learn to trust.." His yelling was cut off by a sudden kick to the back of his feet that sent him failing to the ground sideways. "Turmoil inside of a team makes for an easy target." Jugren had taken the time the three mages were distracted to pick up one of the earth spears his men threw earlier and attack Cirven.

"First one down is the loud mouth." Jugren used his position standing above Cirven to his advantage and slashed at his chest twice in an x-like fashion. The slashes cut through the Musketeer outfit that the Demon slayer was wearing and left gashes where they connected. "AHHhhh..!" The blue-haired boy let out a loud moan that was cut off by the pain. Jugren picked up his foot and kicked Cirven in the side, sending him rolling to the wall near by and the grip on his blade loosened causing it to drop to its regular form. A trail of blood lead up to his body and he didn't move.

"Now... Should I kill me a blonde or a blue-haired.." Jugren tapped the spear over his shoulder as he thought but walked towards Kiersa who had both earth mages shooting a barrage of more earth spears at her from inside the mist despite being cold.

Spoiler:

"TRUST YOU?!"
Aayla quite literally screamed this at her brother as her blood began to boil, instantly warming her up, yet forcing her to drop the mist. The droplets splattering against the floor like icy beads, rolling and sliding in every which direction.

"REALLY? I SHOULD TRUST YOU?"
Her hands were shaking violently, even as she turned from watching Kiersa beat on the Earth mage, to watching the enemy beat on her brother. How the hell was he so stupid!? How the hell was she EVER supposed to trust him! He PROMISED to always be there for her! She could deal with being beaten up, but being abandon hurt more than any wounds the dark dragon had ever inflicted on her. She grit her teeth as she watched the teleporting dark mage beat up her brother, not even reacting when he drove an earthly stake into him, causing him to bleed. She wouldn't let him die... but she hoped to hell he got her message.

"YOU'RE SUCH AN ASS HOLE!"
She cried out this time, bringing her hands up to her mouth and taking in a deep breath, a magic circle forming in front of her hands before she released her breath.

"Water Dragon's ROAR!"
The jet of water launched from her hands towards the enemy with all the power of a dragon's breath. Meanwhile, she brought one hand closer to her lips and whistled loudly, the sound echoing into the now damp chambers.

From outside, Aayla could hear the Serpents struggle to get passed the wizards that battered her, flying up higher into the sky before flying at high speeds towards the mansion. Without a second thought, Zinnath came crashing through the grand window of the ballroom. Glass shattered everywhere, mixing in with the water that had pooled onto the ground, making the floor a slippery rink.

Kiersa was having to dodge the enemy's spears, her Damocles spells still running strong on her. She could drop the swords and make a shield to defend against the spears, but then that would mean that she was pinned down, and one of them could go and help their boss with Aayla and Cirven. As it stood right now, she was keeping both their focus on her. She winced as Aayla and Cirven were arguing with each other during all of this though. "By the Maker..." she sighed before glancing in Cirven's direction as he fell to the floor wounded, and spotted Jurgen heading her way.

The nun was about to call out to Aayla when she saw the girl already Roaring at the teleport mage. Jurgen for his part blinked in surprise right before he found himself being blasted off of his feet from the force of the blast. The two Earth mages briefly halted their assault on her as they looked in shock at their temporarily downed boss. Kiersa used the chance to get in close and finish the pair off before she dismissed the blades, rushing over to Cirven's side.

"Oh Maker..." she said softly as she looked at his wounds. The nun held her hands over Cirven's chest. "Aayla, cover me please..." she requested before she intoned "Stigmata of Grace." As Cirven's cross shaped wounds would slowly begin to heal, they would appear on Kiersa's own chest under her armour. Meanwhile Jurgen was getting up and looking around at the devastation and mess. "Well... that's a bloody damned nuisance." he said almost too casually even as he regarded Zinnath and the three mages. "Oh so the blonde is a healer? Well that's just not good enough... Can't have the "good guys" having an unfair advantage now can we?" he said as he teleported, aiming to strike at Kiersa and remove her from Cirven's aid.

Spoiler:

Cirven's eyes opened as the nun came stood over him and started to use her magic. He lifted his head a little to look towards where Jugren was. A grin formed on his face as he heard the leader of the hostage taking was about to attack Kiersa. "Quick move Kiersa!" Cirven quickly got up from his position and made sure Kiersa was out of the way before he slashed the ground in front of him and her.

Jugren teleported but managed to quickly jump back to dodge the blade. "Nice try but.." Jugren's eyes widened as he noticed the flames coming from where the blade had cut into the floor. "Purge Art Lustration." The flames erupted up from the crevice and consumed Jugren inside. "And Flame Demon's" Cirven took a deep breath of air and then shot out a huge blast of white fire. "RAGE!"

He then grabbed at his chest for a second from the pain of pushing his body with his wounds. "Got to make the best.." He ignited his pointer finger in his white flames and traced along the wound he had on his chest to sear it closed. He winced in pain as he did so. "..Out of a bad situation."

Jugren roared in pain and anger. He teleported out of the flames and was seared in his own right. "I won't accept that a bunch of brats got me this hurt! I just won't accept it!!" He yelled out and then teleported behind Aalya this time and tried to use the same earth spear from earlier to slash her back.

Spoiler:

Aayla took a step to go and help Kiersa, but soon found that Cirven had it well under control, good, that meant she didn't have to get close to him where she knew she'd be tempted to hit him. As Cirven attacked the Dark Wizard leader however, she couldn't help but be impressed by what she saw... The strategy to trap the teleporting man, and then the Demon's rage which essentially was a fiery breath attack just like her own. She stopped moving, wondering what she should do now... if she just continued to her her water attacks, there would be nothing Cirven could do to continue in this fight. She bit her lower lip as she even glanced over to the giant Serpent now in the room. Even Zinnath wouldn't be able to do much against him...

Just then, it didn't matter, she let lose a painful cry as the Wizard teleported behind her, driving the earthen stake directly through her body. The physical pain itself didn't hurt as much until the earthn magic started to dissolve into her water body. She felt frozen, as if the stake was keeping her from moving at all. The could feel the magical earth mixing in with the natural water of her body and it felt like someone was pouring salt into an open wound. She wanted to throw up, and did just that, a mixture of water and mud pouring from her lips as she coughed it up. Her eyes darted back to the man now holding the earthen spear into her body as her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

She took a big gulp before bringing her hands onto the tip of the spear, holding onto it tightly as she screwed her eyes shut tightly.

"W...Water... D...Dra...Dragon's Wave!"
She cried out, water bubbles began to form around her hands. She forced herself to let go of the spear, sharpy extending her arms to both sides of her body, and rapidly bringing them in closer to herself again. The water on the ground seemed to increase in mass, and grow and grow until two large waves were suddenly created and came crashing into the Teleportation Wizard.

As if to help her hurt friend with her struggles, Zinnath opened her mouth and fired off a Hydro pump of her own, adding a third blast to the waves that would go crashing into their opponent.

Spoiler:

Kiersa gave a short cry as Cirven pushed her aside, and watched in dread and awe at the power of the Demon Slayer magic being used against the human mage. The white flames seared with such force, and yet she could feel the divine within those fires. She didn’t have long to marvel though at the flames as the man vanished once more and instead Aayla’s cries filled the room. “No!” yelled Aayla, even as Avalon faded from her form, reverting her to the borrowed musketeers uniform.

She watched as the waves crashed into not only the Teleport mage but also the Water Slayer. “Stigmata of Flight!” she intoned, her legs falling lifeless beneath her as she surged forwards on divine wings of light, her back bleeding from the spell. “Zinnath! Keep him busy!” called out the nun before she did possibly the most insane thing she could think of right now.

She dived into the maelstrom of crashing waves.

The nun swam through the turbulent storm until she found the blue-haired girl. She would try to pull her from the crashing waves and turbulent waters, knowing that she would not be able to heal her in her own waters. With a streak of light Kiersa soared out of the waters and headed for the relative safety of an upper balcony. The nun would gently lay Aayla down to the floor before looking down at Cirven. “Take him out!” she called down, dispersing her wings so that their light would not give away her location.

After ensuring that they were safely out of human sight, the nun turned her focus to Aayla’s wound. “Maker, grant me the strength to save her…” prayed the nun before she held her hands over her friends wound. “Stigmata of Grace.” She intoned, her eyes beginning to bleed as she would begin to try and heal Aayla’s wound, a similar one soon appearing under Kiersa’s robes.

Spoiler:

Cirven cringed at first as he heard the screaming voice of his sister. "Damn it! I used up so much to try and finish this guy there and he just keeps on coming back from it." He couldn't help but get angry about Jugren being able to take so many hits especially after he had just attacked his sister. He was about to use his magic to get to her quickly but stopped as he saw the water building up around both Jugren and Aalya.

He understood why she attacked and he expected it but the problem was that it made it practically impossible for him to attack Jugren while he was in that water. The worst part about it was that this gave Jugren a shield to teleport from and attack anyone he wanted to again. He grit his teeth as he tried to think of what he could do next.

Before he could move to start up some sort of attack, Kiersa used her flight spell again and flew towards the huge mass of water. She called out to Zinnath to keep Jugren busy but Cirven knew that wouldn't work at all and waited for an opportunity to strike at the man after he teleported. It was really his only chance of attack.

Jugren teleported out of the water and above Zinnath. "So a flying snake wanted to be added to the list of victims, huh!?" Jugren lifted up the earth spear he had somehow managed to hold onto through the waves crashing into him and started to bring it down towards Zinnath but was suddenly stopped by a hand crashing into his neck. The hand held onto him and slammed him into a wall. "We don't like animal cruelty much you know." Cirven used his other hand to grasp onto his elbow of the arm that held Jugren. "Let go you prick! I can't teleport like this!" Jugren stabbed the earth spear into Cirven's shoulder but Cirven still managed to hold on through the pain. "PURGE ART: EXPURGATION!!" Cirven yelled out through the pain of being stabbed and sent a massive blast of flames out of his hand to consume Jugren and cause the wall behind him to explode and leave a hole behind the man.

Jugren was burned badly by the constant fire attacks and was still held by Cirven. "Guys! Attack him before he gets away from me!" He yelled out as Jugren ripped the spear from Cirven's shoulder. "You are making this too easy, dumbass. You look too worn out for anymore magic and even though I look just as bad I can still kill all of you!" Jugren then started to bring the spear down onto Cirven aiming for hie neck.

Spoiler:

Aayla figured she would have been safe inside her own water, by increasing the mass of water around her body, it would have helped continue to dilute the eath that had dissolved into her body and expel it. However, when Kiersa came crashing through the waves, wrapping her arms around her and picking her up she sheepishly glanced at the nun. Before she could say anything however, they were already out of the waves and flying up onto the second floor balcony.

She continued to cough, the dark watery dirt spilling from her lips as she was lied down onto the ground. She rolled onto her side, coughing and coughing attempting to expel the magic that had poisoned her.

"K...Kiersa... don't... i'm fine..."
Her body wouldn't feel the effects of being impaled, but she was afraid Kiersa might. She reached up to grab Kiersa's hand in a motion to get the girl to stop what she was doing before shakily pushing herself up to a seated position, placing her hand over her chest where th wound would have been had her body been anything more than it was...

"I...it's not... physical pain... don't..."
She said softly as she took in a deep breath when she heard her brother yelling at them. They had to finish this guy off, fast, before he did any more serious harm to either of them. She moved to carefully push herself up to lean onto the railing.

Just then, Zinnath shot forward from her spot, flying towards Cirven and the teleport mage. She flew a little higher, so that when she reached the pair, shewas able to strike downwards, opening her large mouth and engulfing their enemies head. Her sharp fangs pierced into the man's neck, injecting her poison directly into his artery, paralyzing him quickly. Zinnath waited until she could feel the man begin to slow down before removing herself from his head. Even though he wasnt unconscious yet, he soon would be as her toxin took away his ability to move at all.

Aayla smiled softly as she leaned against the railing as she looked down at Zinnath. There was someone she could always count on...

The nun winced as she felt the pain that was going through Aayla's form as her own. She let out a faint sigh as the blue haired girl seemed to be alright for the moment... or at least out of danger from dying. Her relief was short-lived however as she heard Cirven's cries for aid. She looked down towards the ground floor, about to illicit a desperate cry before Zinnath rendered Jurgen immobile. She looked around at the group as the realisation dropped on her shoulders like a lead weight.

She would have to finish the job. The nun looked down at Aayla. "I'll be right back..." she said softly. "Stigmata of Flight." she intoned before her back bled and the wings of light formed. She flew down to the main floor before landing in front of Jurgen, the wings not shifting out of existence yet however.

"Jurgen, Dark Mage of Fiore... You are charged and found guilty with the crimes of destruction and endangerment of innocent life... In the Light of the Maker, and by the powers vested in me by the guild of Sabertooth..." she said before raising her ring, not saying the chant and yet Avalon formed around her body, her wings growing stronger, brighter and larger. "I hereby sentence you to imprisonment... You who held no restraint in trying to take our lives, shall be granted more mercy than you should us..." she said.

"Stigmata of Damocles." she intoned, a holy blade of light forming from the ether over her wrist. Kiersa took the divine sword and thrust it into the mage's gut. He let out a short gasp of air before keeling over in the serpents grip. "It is not a fatal wound... but should keep you down even after Zinnath's toxins wear off..." said Kiersa before she regarded Cirven. In her full armour she lowered herself to the floor, her wings still shining out to provide light in the darkened hall, and held her hands over the pointy eared mage. "Stigmata of Grace." she said softly, her eyes not bleeding due to the power of Avalon as she began to heal the Demon Slayer.

The Musketeers returned to the scene to see the devastation around them. They then regarded the three mages from Sabertooth and the Sea Serpent and the Dark Mages that had been defeated. "Well..." began Portha. "Let's get the healer teams in here... I think we'll let the governments decide who has to pay the damages for this one..." said Atma with a smirk, the nun blushing as she continued to heal her comrades even as the musketeers moved into positions to cuff the Dark Mages and gather the Sabertooth Mages.

It took another day at least for everyone to get fully healed up from the fierce battle. The government representatives decided that since it had been Minstrel that had been the target of the Dark Mages, and the Townsend family that had been held hostage and threatened, that Minstrel's prisons would hold the Dark Mages. The Holy Tempest Team were given their reward of jewels, along with a gift from the Musketeers and Townsend family. A green version of the uniforms they had worn during their time in Minstrel. They would be considered honourary musketeers should they ever return to Minstrel. And so they returned home.