The teams of fairies stood atop the plateau at the ready, the minotaurs had returned. It had been a full ten days since Arthur and his team had arrived. They all had worked hard to prepare the fairies for this day, even Arthur who had obtained the creation god rune of Vivum five days ago.

After agreeing to help, quietly the team agreed that after two weeks they would leave to continue their disent, though none of them wanted to see the Minotaurs return this soon.

The fairy in general were extremely fast learners, so the soldiers were well prepared, but they were still no better than a top graduate from Lancer Academy. There was no substitute for experience, and from the looks of the number of minotaurs, they would get plenty of experience today.

There were twice as many minotaurs as compared to the last attack, as well as twice as many siege towers. The siege towers also changed, instead of the wood they were originally made of they were now made of the same flat black metal the village walls were.

Near the edge the Queen, an old male who was identified as the General, Arthur and his team stood behind a spiked wall overlooking the approaching horde.

Thanks the Theo, Elijah, and Feyrith, the plateau now looked more like a fortress than a massive rock formation. Although most of the credit had to go to Elijah, who had been able to overcome his fear of his Virita metal magic, and did a bulk of the plateau's restructuring.

"Make ready!" The General called out as the minotaurs approached the firing range of their aether arrows. The edge of the plateau it up with a line of purple as their arrows formed. "FIRE!"

They released their arrows, and a sea of amethyst raced towards their targets. The Minotaurs with shields quickly took position as those without got behind them. The shields did their job and protected those behind them, but those who weren't lucky enough to be close behind the shield carriers were most at risk, and made up most of the deaths in the first birage.

Aether arrows continued to rain down on the minotaurs, but they continued moving forward. As the siege towers entered range it was time for Feyrith's team to put their training to work. Three ballistae, the bows made from aether crystal, were pushed forward. The fairy's new siege weapon used five fairies since the operation was too draining for just one to be able to fire more than one. However with five they could fire roughly a dozen before they needed to rest. With two on either side and one in the back a large aether arrow, roughly the size of a person formed on each weapon. The ballistae were aimed at the black towers, and with a pushing movement from the back fairy the arrows fired. The arrows hit their marks, but the armored towers only wobbled a bit, and kept moving forward.

"Aim for the tops and fire again!" The General ordered.

The massive arrows were fired again, and this time the towers shook more violently, but still wouldn't fall over. They then tried striking the same tower, but still it wouldn't go down.

Feyrith looked over the edge to get a better look at the towers, and saw what needed to be done. He grabbed the General's shoulder to get his attention. "Have them target the ground right in front of one of the front wheels."

The General looked confused, but ordered one of the ballistae teams to do just that. An aether arrow formed and when launched hit the ground two feet in front of one of the front wheels of the closest tower, leaving a deep crater that the tower almost immediately started to roll into. With the tower being pushed from behind there was no way to stop it, so as the towers balance was thrown off as they continued to push. The tower toppled over, crushing several Minotaurs in the process. The General and many other fairies were left completely amazed and excited by this, but quickly recovered as the General followed up and ordered the other ballistae teams to do the same.

Three more towers went down with this strategy before the minotaurs had focused their shields around the towers. The ballistae arrows were still powerful enough to send shielded minotaurs flying but not kill them. The shields were still powerful enough to withstand a single hit, but were left mangled and unusable after. The regular archers were quick to see the vulnerable minotaurs and began targeting them before they could even get up. Thanks to the minotaurs sacrificing themselves, three of the towers arrived at the plateau.

"Guardians! Protect our home!" The General yelled.

The fairies that Claire had trained took positions as far back from the towers as they could as they formed their aether swords and awaited their enemy. The towers shook for a second as they hit the plateau, and a metal ramp fell down shy of the spikes wall, to reveal the minotaurs. As the minotaurs started to pour out and climbed over the wall, but they held their position, it wasn't their time yet. Suddenly the ground under the feet of many of the minotaurs turned to liquid and they quickly sank down to as deep as their necks for the shorter ones, before turning to stone again.

This was the work of Elijah's teaching. After coming to an understanding of the creation aether art Elijah taught them the value of traps, and after some trial and error, this was what they came up with. Creation was not actually the ability to create something from nothing, but to essentially adjust the atomic structure of an object and turn it into something new or changing its state. Solid could become a gas or dirt into gold, even a living body could be affected, though it was impossible to create anything living, whether it be a plant or living person. Arthur suspected this was a boundary that could only be overcome by mastering fate.

In this case when the minotaurs set off the trigger, the stone in the designated area going eight feet down turned into water, before resolidifying and trapping the minotaurs in stone. It took a lot of work for the fairies to do this, and not everyone that took the class was able to yet, but there were several along the top of the plateau on that side where they expected the attack to come.

With the first wave almost completely defeated the remaining minotaurs hesitated briefly as they processed what had just happened. This hesitation was not wasted however, as the fairy soldiers began their counter attack. With most of the first wave trapped they were ignored to be killed later, leaving the scattered few on the plateau as easy targets. Because of the incident they were a bit slow to react, allowing the fairies to close the distance quickly.

Moving in teams of three the fairies flew in before folding in their wings and beginning their attack. The minotaurs noticed them and raised their weapons to attack. As they brought the weapons down the first fairy would dive out of the way to dodge the attack. Some of the minotaurs remained focused on the first fairy and followed after it, completely forgetting about the other two, who took advantage and went for the kill. Those that did keep their attention on the other two ended up falling from an attack from behind from the first fairy.

Despite how effective this strategy was, it would obviously be easy to counter, but with the current chaos the minotaurs couldn't respond properly. And as long as they didn't allow any minotaurs to escape, they could never report back what they had seen.

As the battle raged on Arthur and his team watched alongside the queen, the General, and a few guards. Despite having been in the middle of a war themselves, they couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. They knew that helping the fairies was necessary so Arthur could gain another needed rune, and after seeing how the minotaurs treated the fairies they had captured they felt helping them was even the right thing to do. But as they watched how easily the fairies had adapted to warfare, killing the minotaurs quickly and efficiently with no hesitation, they wondered if they had created monsters themselves.

After a few hours all of the minotaurs had been killed, the last ones killed from behind as they tried to retreat. The battle was an overwhelming victory for the fairies, with only a handful of deaths on their side.

Thanks to their aether art, cleaning up from the battle was a breeze, and the afternoon became a celebration of their victory. A massive feast was held throughout the plateau, music filled the air, and aether fireworks exploded in the sky. For the first time in generations the fairies didn't feel fear of being discovered, they felt safe.

Back in their rooms however, Arthur and his team weren't celebrating, they were packing. With their agreement with the fairies fulfilled it was now time for them to continue the dive. The plan was simple, as soon as they were ready they were leaving, and would use the cover of the night to go through the minotaur village and get up the mountain to the gate.

Knock knock

Arthur and Tess turned around to see the queen and several guards in the doorway.

"So you are leaving," she said sadly.

"We have to. People are waiting for us to complete this mission successfully," Arthur replied.

"Is there truly no way to convince you to stay? You have become heros to my people, and I have no doubt we could learn so much more from you"

"I'm afraid not, but I'm confident that you and your people will be fine."

"Arthur," Curtis said from the doorway. "We're ready."

Arthur nodded and he and Tess stored the last of their belongings in their dimensional rings. As they began to walk out the queen gently stopped Tess.

"I've come to the conclusion that you are Arthur's wife, is that correct?"

"It is your majesty," Tess replied with a smile as she nodded her head.

"In that case before you go, I would like to give you something, a blessing all queens give to the other females as they reach child baring age." The queen placed her right hand on Tess' lower abdomen as it gave a warm purple glow. "May your fertility be plentiful, and may you give birth to many strong sons and daughters."

"Thank you, your majesty," Tess replied as her cheeks burned with a bright red.

—————————————————————-

Under the cover of darkness Arthur and his team stood along the tree line looking upon Minotaur village.

"I swear it wasn't this bright the other night," Curtis stated.

Along the walls were a series of torches, with small bonfires at regular intervals atop the guard towers. Within the village there was also an orange glow, no doubt from multiple other fires throughout.

"It's got to be because of the attack," Regis concluded. "Since they lost last time they have their guard up in case of a counter attack."

"And of course it has nothing to do with a certain wolf being spotted last time," Lilia pointed out while glaring at Regis.

"It doesn't matter the reason. All that matters is that it's happening," Arthur stated, as his eyes didn't leave the village.

Suddenly there was a low rumble as dark clouds formed overhead.

"After I put out all the fires Regis and I will act as a diversion while the rest of you make your way up the mountain to the old fairy village halfway up and wait for us by the gate. It should be near the largest building."

A few seconds later there the sky's opened up to a torrential downpour. In less than a minute every last fire within the village was put out. Despite the downpour, roars for the minotaurs could be heard clearly.

"Wait thirty seconds after a blow through the gate then go!" Arthur yelled over the rain.

Arthur and Regis then began sprinting towards the wall as the rain continued. As they approached the gate Arthur pulled his arm back, then released with so much force that not only did he blow the gate doors off their hinges, but the clouds and rain were blown away as well. Arthur then burst into a bright orange flame as he and Regis disappeared through the broken gate.

From what he had seen from the attack on the fairies he expected the village to look darker and more savage within the wall. However it looked just like any other village he had seen in Sapin with homes and businesses lining the streets. Not wanting to hurt any civilians Arthur used sound and fire magic to set off small explosions in the air, as to keep the minotaurs' attention on them alone.

As the minotaurs chased Arthur and Regis up and down the streets, Tess led the rest of the team through the broken gate. There were a few minotaurs standing guard, but they were quickly and quietly taken care of before they could even make a noise.

Without a word Tess pointed to the mountain ahead of them, a straight shot from the gate they just entered. Thanks to using mana to enhance their vision they saw her and the mountain, and they all took off running.

They could hear the chaos created by Arthur and Regis as they ran. The roars of the minotaurs became more and more distant, telling them the minotaurs were mostly focused on them. They had passed through the village and were approaching the rocky base of the mountain when a black metal fence shot up out of the ground blocking their path, forcing them to run into it because of how close they were.

"Shit, where did this come from?" Theo questioned.

"They must have forced the fairy prisoners to make it," Lilia replied.

"Either smash through it or jump over it, we don't have time to worry about all that," Curtis shouted as he pulled back one of his swords to strike.

However before he could black metal spikes shot up around nearly everyone, acting like a cage as a single spike came up to their abdomens, aimed right for their cores.

"Hang on, I'll bust you all out of there!" Tess shouted, not being trapped herself.

Suddenly a spike shot up in front of Tess.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

She looked back to see Elijah standing there freely and with a cold gaze. It didn't take much thought for Tess to realize what was going on.

"Nico," she said as she clenched tightly on Dawns Ballad.

"Good, Grey explained everything," he said as he pulled something from his dimensional ring. "That means we can skip the annoying questions." He threw something to Tess and she caught it, a mana suppression collar. "Put it on or I'll start shattering cores."

"Elijah what are you doing?!" Curtis yelled.

"Silence," Nico said as he released the pressure from his core. "I have no desire to hurt any of you, you aren't my enemy. But I will not hesitate to shatter all of your cores if you try and resist or Tess doesn't put the collar on."

"You don't have to do this, Tess pleaded. "Arthur told me everything, he regrets what happened, but it wasn't all his fault. Cecilia..."

"Silence!" Nico shouted in anger.

"Hmph," Claire grunted as the spike started to slowly push into her abdomen as she grabbed at it and tried to force it out.

"Claire!" Tess cried and tried to run to her.

"Don't move! You are an imbecile if you actually believe anything Grey says! All he does is lie to get what he wants. He deserves nothing but pain and despair, not even a sliver of love," he said through gritted teeth. "Now put the collar on before I have to start hurting people."

Tess looked to her friends as she shook. She was confident that she could hold her own against Nico, maybe even defeat him. But as long as he held her friends she was at his mercy. Glaring daggers at him she put dawns ballad into her dimensional ring and began to bring the collar to her neck. But before she could get it around her neck Arthur appeared in a purple flash behind Nico as he delivered a spinning kick to his head.

Nico went flying through his fence and smashed into the mountain base. Before Arthur's feet could touch the ground Regis shot out of his body and the two quickly began freeing everyone from the trap.

"Tess!" Arthur called out as she ran to him. He pulled her into a hug and held her for a few seconds before releasing her. His new runes glowed golden on the backs of his hands as the ground waved and rippled out from his feet and headed to the mountain with an amethyst hugh. As the wave hit the mountain, wide stairs began forming and began moving up the mountain. "Tess, lead everyone up the mountain and to the gate."

"What about you?"

"I'll meet you up there when I'm done." He leaned in and gave Tess a gentle kiss, then turned around. "I need to kick Nico's ass."

At the same time rocks burst out around Nico as he freed himself from the rocks that were covering him.

"GREY!" Nico roared.

Before he had a chance to even locate him, Arthur was already slamming his fist into his stomach. Nico was thrown back again, but this time bounced off of a bolder as his impact shattered it. He landed on his stomach gasping for air as he tried to force himself back up to his feet. He looked up to see Arthur casually walking towards him as Regis and Tess lead the others up the stairs Arthur formed.

"No," Nico grunted out pathetically.

He cast a spell, sending dozens of metal spikes at Arthur and the others, however they didn't make it. Runes glowed under Arthur's eyes and the spikes changed course, forming a spinning tornado of spikes. Nico looked at this in disbelief as he tried to understand what just happened to his spell. Out of nowhere the spikes started shooting at him like a machine gun. He conjured more spikes to counter, but they were coming at him too fast, forcing him to create a metal wall for cover. The wall held back till the third spike, which pierced halfway through before stopping.

He began running as fast as he could, the spikes whizzing past him before crashing into the ground. To Arthur this was like shooting fish in a barrel, he could have turned him into a human pincushion easily, but he realized, despite how many times he brutalized him the previous timeline when he escaped, he wasn't actually satisfied. Dismembering him wasn't what he wanted, he wanted to show the gap between them, he now wanted Nico to feel despair, that there was nothing he could do to stop him, that he was barely even a nuisance to him, he wanted to break his spirit. If not for the plans he had for Elijah, and that he was confident that they were close to reaching the Dijin, he probably would have killed him and left to rejoin the others.

After running out of spikes Arthur god stepped right in front of him, clotheslining him, then stomping his foot down on his face. Arthur lifted his foot to see Nico's face a bloody mess as black flames started to heal him. The thought of killing him right then and there, saving himself any potential future troubles crossed his mind, showing him that Nico's presence had truly damaged his friendship with Elijah, perhaps permanently.

As the flames died out Nico was seen still unconscious. Arthur then pulled out the latest and greatest mana suppression artifact Gideon had created, specifically for Nico. First Arthur attached it around Nico's waist, right above his core. He then secured a metal shackle at his wrists, ankles, and neck, which all connected to the shackle around his waist by a metal cable. Each shackle had a black crystal on it, and when Arthur touched the one on Nico's waist and activated it all of them glowed. After the glow subsided Arthur knew the artifact was active and Nico was probably restrained.

"You knew didn't you?" Nico groaned. "That I was back."

Arthur nodded in response.

"How long did you know?"

"Shortly after we arrived on this floor. I've been keeping an eye on you this whole time, it's impossible for me to miss it."

He then gagged Nico with a towel shoved in his mouth.

ROAR!

Arthur turned back to see the minotaurs had arrived, having caught up after Arthur godstepped away. Grabbing Nico by the arm he pulled him up to his feet, then godstepped away as several minotaurs threw their throwing weapons.

—————————————————————

After nearly an hour the stairs had come to an end, Tess and the others had reached the old Fairy village. It looked little more than ancient ruins now, with stone pillars knocked over and broken buildings that looked like homes, with overgrown plants covering nearly everything. The temperature was actually quite mild considering how high up they were, but no one questioned it, they had become used to things that didn't make sense in the relic tomb.

They walked through with Regis leading the way, but kept on guard. Despite looking long abandoned they were ready for something to come out and attack. They weren't sure exactly where they were going, but they could see a large structure that resembled a castle up ahead and assumed that was it. After a few minutes they could see the silver portal shining in front of the castle, and Arthur and Nico beside it.

Seeing them they picked up the pace, it didn't matter that it didn't make much sense to them that Arthur some how managed to beat them up there, what mattered was that he was there. As they arrived they saw Arthur sitting in a stone chair eating from one of his rations, as Nico was in the plank position with his head on the ground and a stone spike aimed at his heart.

"Arthur!" Tess called out as she ran to him. Once there she wrapped her arms around him tightly. "Are you ok?"

"Perfectly fine," Arthur replied with a warm smile.

"I guess the gap between you two was really that big. It doesn't look like he even left a scratch on you," Theo commented.

"Umm," Lilia started as she look at Nico nervously. "I know what Elijah did way bad and warrants punishment, but don't you think this is a bit extreme?"

Arthur glanced over at Nico nonchalantly, then back to Lilia and shook his head. "No."

"Honestly, with all the other shit he's pulled this is merciful," Regis commented as he glared at Nico with a palpable bloodlust. "If it were me I'd rip this little shit to shreds."

"What other shit?" Curtis asked.

"Don't worry about it," Arthur said dismissively.

The others obviously had questions, but Arthur wasn't in the mood to answer any of them now. The spike under Nico glowed and melted back into the ground, allowing Nico to now collapse to the ground.

"Get up," Regis growled through his teeth.

Nico shuttered, he knew right now Arthur was the only thing keeping him alive. With the limited movement he had he eventually got himself to his feet.

"Alright, let's go everyone. Regis, you're back on guard duty," Arthur said as he turned to the portal.

Regis groaned as he and the others followed Arthur through to the next level.