William took a step on the large flying platform of chunky earth. "This is where the castle..." William informs the others, showing them the brochure telling them about a 'tough, spunky new challenge for beginner mages.' Smiling as he looks up at the gargantuan tower, the tower would soon be under his control. "So shall we seize the top?" William grins, ready for action.

"Well, there's only one thing I'm looking forward too~" Rickardo laughs happily, staring at Aliidan, completely ignoring her eagle.

Beginning to open the massive medieval door, it creaked slowly as they begin to enter the first floor... not realising that it could very well be the toughest trial they've ever been through.

Aliidan was still sleepily rubbing her eyes and trying (and failing) to get rid of her bed hair. Some would say she looked cute, others would say she looked retarded. Its all in the taste really.
"Mmum... So tired... Want sleep..." Aliidan said, her eyes drooping heavily, on the verge of falling shut completely.

Rie, still not too sure how she had managed to survive the destruction of the school, was even more confused as to how she had managed to end up here... Her Shoryoutensei held ready in one hand she hoped she was ready for whatever waited beyond that door... Now that she tought about it that door was stupidly big anyway... She looked at Aliidan and noted that the blue haired girl seemed to suffer from lack of sleep...

William looked as fearless as ever, but Ashraeh was skeptical. Why were they here? What's the objective? As she pondered this, reality struck her that she almost had been left behind.

"W-wait up!" She dashed foward to catch up with the others, panting and gasping for breath after she caught up.

Rose sighed as everyone rushed off ahead. Handing the person who gave them a ride here, a young man with striking blonde hair, similar to William simply took the money gave a polite bow and flew off. "Alright, I wish us luck." Rose mutters, following behind the group of her friends. She gave a glare at the perverted ermine, "You better not be planning that..." Rose mutters.

Aliidan in her sleepy state didn't look where she was going and ended up slipping on one of the many century old roots that littered the hallway... And everything else as well. "Ah!" was all Aliidan managed to say before she ended up spread eagle on the floor, George sighed and flew off, muttering about needing to stretch his wings. "Owie... That hurt..." Aliidan whimpered from the floor.

Rie kneeled by Aliidan and helped the girl up on her feet.
"Aliidan, you need to be careful, you could get seriously hurt here you know..." Rie said as she proded Aliidan gently for any lasting injuries. As the group continued onwards they came upon a large, nay, Huge garden with all sorts of trees, vegetation and small animals, as well as a huge fountain in the center. In short, it would have been a perfect picnic spot. "Ara? Looks like someone enjoyed his or her gardens..." Rie said after a little while of staring at the garden.

"Uh, William. What are we doing here...?" Ashraeh was really curious about their current goal.

She walked a bit faster to keep pace with all the rest of the group. Speaking of group, William already formed pactios with everyone here. What a player.

Rose smiled at everyone, as she checked out the fountain. The water was coming from somewhere other than this room, more than likely pipelines from underneath the ground. "This place is quite modern, though it may not seem it." She says, pointing at the windows. At first glance, nothing seemed wrong, but after closer inspection, the windows shown would be a rare type of glass only newly created.

"You alright Aliidan?" William stares at the clumsiness of the poor magician. Turning to Rie, she explained about the area. It was a luxurious looking place with harmonious animals frolicking in the garden. "It sure is a nice place, but... it would seem that in this castle, there has to be someone looking after it, meaning an enemy." William sighs, that being his only conclusion he came up with.

Looking at Ashraeh, "We're here for exploration! I've always wanted to create and form a group on exploring you know," He smiles nonchalantly. He looked at Rose, she already put her smarts to use, beginning to find out what was up with the area.

Turning to the group as a whole, "There's two paths up ahead... we may need to split up." William sighs.

"Wait... Splitting up may not be a bad idea, looking at Singer-sis's artifact. She can track us down, no matter where we are, right? Also, white-haired sis has a very powerful artifact. She's about the strongest one here. Also, rich sis, your artifact can shoot powerful torrents of water... don't take it lightly." Rickardo smiles, giving a slight wink at Aliidan trying to persuade her to form a pactio.

"So, shall we press onward?" William asks, wondering if they should split the group or not. He knew their strengths and did trust everyone.

Rose sighed, her artifact seemed to be the weakest. But, she didn't mind that, she sighed because Rickardo continued to force his ideals, or at least blatantly looked like he was trying to.

"It would be safer in a group, but to cover more distance, we would need to split up. For now though, I recommend we should stay together... but, I don't mind going with either," Rose explains.

Exploration? She could be studying right now. What a waste of time. William had dragged her along, not telling her what was happening or even where they were going.

But she remembered, she did need to take a break. I suppose William was right in this sense.

"I guess, I guess. Let's stay together for now. This floor is the largest one from the visual appearance outside. It gets narrower up, the higher we go, so let's look some indication of an entrance to the top. What do you think, Ashraeh?" He asks the timid bookworm, the only way she really speaks is when something is directed to her or she's curious about something.

That's not an effective way of bringing your own opinions out, either. So Will always kept a small track on her.

"Well, I think it's a great idea!" She says with an obviously fake smile.

Aliidan poked at the water in the fountain with her staff, noticing that there were no ripples to be found on the surface. 'How strange... And this whole place... it looks so ancient but has some modern things? I'm not sure I like this...' Aliidan thought to herself. Unfortunately she didn't notice where she was going and tripped on another large tree root. "Why meeeee~~?" Aliidan cried as she fell down a slope and ended up separated from the rest of the group.
"Aiyah? Ah! Where am I? Will? Rose??? Rie??? Oh no!" Aliidan started to panic once she found herself all alone. Poor stupid little Aliidan all alone in a flying castle...

William sighed at Ashraeh's obvious sarcasm. Then stared, dazed at Aliidan. "A-Aliidan! Where are you!?" William rushes down the slope where Aliidan rolled. There were two paths... a giant '1' appearing above one path and no numbers above the other. Rushing into the path with a '1' over it, the '1' turns into a '0'.

"Aliidan!" He shouts, entering the same path she fell down, as he done so... the doors behind them began to shut closely until they were alone in darkness... Rushing over to the now closed door, he begins punching it hoping to break it. Ineffective. "Rose, Rie, Aliidan, Ashraeh! Can anyone hear me?" He shouts, creating a small flame above his hand as a light source.

Sadly, even Rickardo had gone missing...

Rie, hearing Aliidan crying out as she fell, whirled around only to see Will rush off haphazardly down the slope before she could get a warning off to him.
Rie heard a sound close to her and turned around to face it, whatever it was. "Who goes there? Show yourself!" Rie's timid voice made the demand much more laughable than if it had been anyone else. The second ticked on, stretching into minutes as Rie stood there, sword at the ready.

"Adeat: Delinera Blasphemia!!" Rose summons her artifact, facing the same way as Rie. Sensing someone around, "Who are you?!" Rose shouts aloud, hoping for a response from the person. It would also reveal his general location, which would be a very positive thing.

She wasn't sure if the person was an enemy or ally or neither.

Aliidan decided to make the best of the situation, picking up her staff and off she went to explore.
"So old... How can something this old have such modern additions... Unless... They invented it first? Exactly HOW old is this place? And... Why did the original owners vanish?" Aliidan asked as she trudged onwards, staff at the ready and unaware of any dangers that may or may not lurk in the shadows...

Rie tensed as she heard a shuffling sound off into the corridor she and Rose were facing.
Out from the corridor hopped a little bunny, with floppy ears and a little nose and the whole cute bunny package. "Oh... Just a bunny... What do we do? Will and Aliidan have not returned from where they ended up... My guess is that they are either trapped or otherwise unable to reach us... I would sugest pressing on but I am not sure..." Rie said, muscles still tense and ready for a quick strike against anything.

William stopped banging on the door, hoping for the others to reply. After getting no such reply, he turns, "Aliidan, seems we're on our own..." He sighs, as he frantically looks around with a blank look. Aliidan had already went off without him!!

Charging after her, he was unsure if she was close or not. The light from William's hand didn't extend very far and was only best for short distances. "Aliidan!! Where are you?!?!" He shouts as loud as he can, as it echoes through the halls.

Ashraeh felt a little guilty for sassing William. She decided to apologize as soon as possible. She pondered and pondered, about their peculiar situation.

"Rie, what do you propose we do?" She waited for an answer, but didn't get one. "Rie?" Still silence. Oh no!, she thought. She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she got left behind.

She ran through the pitch black darkness, calling out names.

"According to Delinera Blaspehima... they're separate. William and Aliidan aren't together...!! We have to take the other path, it may very well end up connecting to the one they're in, I think we should press forward Rie. Ash-- Ashraeh?" Rose asks, turning around as Ashraeh seemed to go ahead into the tunnel before them, most likely lost in thought. "Rie! Ashraeh went ahead, we have to catch up to her!" She shouts, rushing into the second tunnel.

Jess had just been wandering around on her own, she loved seeing the places around... But then she spotted William and... All these girls with him. She shook her head... "William, what's going on here?"

The events unrolled before Jessica's eyes. William hadn't seen her and panicked as Aliidan went missing, leaving him charging after her which resulted in them getting separated from the group. This leaves Jess with Rie, Rose and Ashraeh. "Aliidan!!" William shouts at the moment, his fire the only lighting source he had.

As he saw a light further in, the narrow passage turned into a massive dome, a stone statue sitting around with a stone sword and stone shield in hand. "Aliidan, you here?" William repeats his mumbling as the stone statue begins to call out and soon begins to move. The whole area shook as it took a single step... this wasn't good. It was heading directly towards William.

Meanwhile, with the girls. Ashraeh, Rie and Rose now confronting Jessica, would more than likely be shocked as a robed man flies towards right next to Jessica. "Fifty Slashes... a flurry of cherry blossoms..." The man mutters as he attempts to slash Jessica with one of his techniques.