Dran sat in his seat, rubbing his head in frustration. "Look, she is definitely the one." He said into the crystal ball. "Her growth is extraordinary and her mana level is incredibly high for someone so young. I think she's the one the prophecy spoke of."

A woman's voice came from the crystal ball. "You say that, but you don't have any evidence to back it up. As far as I can tell, the appearance of Excalibur to a teenage girl from Terra is utterly ridiculous. Frankly, from what you've described to me, she must have the devil's luck to have survived this long." The woman spoke in a very cynical tone.

"But Elaina-"

"You can say whatever you want. To me the words of another are nothing but words." The woman cut him off. "You of all people should know, Dran, that I take things at face value. If you're really so adamant in advocating the girl's worth, send her to me and I'll judge her myself."

Dran's color then quickly vanished. "T-To you?" he gulped.

"Is that a problem?"

"N-No, of course not. I'll show you that you're wrong about her!" Dran unconsciously snapped.

"Good. And if she turns out to be what I think she is, I can enjoy bragging rights over you for the next year." The light from the Crystal ball then vanished.

Dran leaned back in his chair, letting out a sigh while rubbing his head. "Why do I get a headache every time I talk to that woman?"

"Arch Sage Elaina is a difficult woman." Rowin approached Dran, handing him a cup of tea. "What are you going to do master?"

Dran took in a deep breath before taking a sip of the tea. "Can't back down now. Never hear the end of it if." Dran waved his hands over the crystal ball. "I'll need to call Grameis."

All is normal

20 years. After 20 years, I have finally united my kingdom and taken my place as the rightful king. And here, in Camelot, I found an organization of knights to keep this kingdom and peoples safe from the threats of the outside.

With my beautiful wife, Guinevere by my side, supported by my old friend, Sir Lancelot, and my mentor, Merlin, I stride into the room where my followers meet for the first time, assembled around a round table in the center of the room. The idea came from Merlin; a round table that represented that all who sit around it were equals, even the king. As Lance took his seat, I did the same. The other knights raised their shields, baring their realms crests. And so it began, my legacy, the Knights of the Round Table.

****

The buzz of the alarm clock woke Allisa, who struggled to turn it off. It had been 3 weeks since her last memory flashback, and like before, her head was pounding. As usual, the dream made no sense at all. Last time, Arthur was a little boy, confronting the dragon Azure flame. Now he was a man, sitting with his knights. The order seemed particularly random and left out so much of his life that Allisa was wondering if there was any point to it, other than to make her skull feel like it was splitting apart.

Then, it hit her. Three weeks. It had been three weeks since the battle with the Homunculi. From Allisa's perspective, it felt like it happened yesterday. So much happened in such a short space of time. Allisa reluctantly got out of bed, stripped off her pajamas, picked out a bra and fumbled with it to put it on.

After she put it on, she sat at her desk and brushed her hair before tying it back into a ponytail. It felt like her life was returning to normal. The high school opened up again 2 weeks ago, following the unforeseen events with a ghoul ambush that ruined parts of it, so she was getting back into her regular routine.

Of course, Allisa knew full well that her life would never be normal again. It was just a matter of time before something else came up. As she put her clothes on, she just couldn't help but think, what would happen next? Would it be worse than last time?

****

"Ok, heel," Sasha instructed, holding up a dog bisect above a tiny Cerberus, who followed her instructions. "Yay, good boy." Sasha praised, dropping the biscuit, which Cerberus caught with his mouth.

"Still playing?" Melvin said walking up to Sasha and Cerberus. Cerberus then ran up to Melvin and leaped into his arms, licking his face. "Whoa, easy boy," Melvin said giggling.

Yuki then walked by and cringed. "Uh... that thing is out?"

"Hey! Be nice!" Sasha said to Yuki.

"What for? It's a mange mutt."

Cerberus then leaped on Yuki and bit his hand.

"OW!!!!" Yuki screamed as he tried to swing the little dog off. "Get it off me!!"

"Cerberus, don't forget to claw his eyes out," Melvin instructed.

"I said get it off!!"

On occasions, Melvin would summon Cerberus in a small form to give him some attention. As such, everyone managed to get to know him. Allisa was a little surprised when she first saw him given his scary appearance but warmed up to him since he was friendly. Cerberus actually got along with everyone. However, for some reason, he had a strong dislike for Yuki and would bite him every time he saw him. The only time he didn't was when he was in his large form, but he still showed disdain towards Yuki.

"How come he doesn't like him?" Sasha asked Melvin.

"I can think of a number of reasons," Melvin said.

Eventually, Yuki managed to throw Cerberus off, and he flew through the air and was caught by Max.

"Oh, hey buddy." He said to Cerberus. "Was the sword bastard mean to you again?"

"I didn't do a damn thing to that mutt!!" Yuki yelled. "Man, I hate dogs!"

"Hey! Doggies are cute." Sasha snapped.

"That's not even a dog!!"

Cliff was sitting at the table in the kitchen area, drinking his coffee as he witnessed the argument unfold. "Sure had become rowdy since the freeloaders moved in." he moaned.

"I'll say," Dale said, sitting next to him, letting out a deep sigh.

It had been three weeks since the people from Avalon moved into the Hunter's home, and already there were several problems. One was the lack of knowledge with the world of Terra, as proven when Dale had to explain how a TV worked, and that it wasn't magic, or had people trapped inside. Another was the eating habits of one individual, who could eat his way through an entire supply of food in one day. The only saving grace in the group was Nel, who seemed to adapt very quickly, just. While she could pick up on how to use the electronic devices faster than the others, her social skills in Terra world where..... well, since she was supposed to act like a teenage girl, her acting skills were terrible since most of her reference came from the books she read, in which she adopted a 'cheesy high school girl from romance novels,' as Dale puts it.

"I know I've said this before, but we seriously need to set some firm ground rules with them!" Dale continued. “Just the other day, I found Max and Melvin ripping my comic book collection to shreds. Took me hours to reorganize them.”

"Why are you telling me this?" Cliff sounded exhausted. It wasn't the first time Dale had a talk with him about their 'guests.'

"Cause we agreed controlling our guests was your problem."

Cliff pointed to the argument breaking out on the other end of the room. "You try controlling that? I've seen elementary school kids behave better than them."

Mirage and Nel then sat down at the table. "Seems lively as ever huh?" Mirage said to Cliff.

"That's an understatement." Cliff moaned, "Can't remember when it was quiet around here."

"We are quite a rowdy bunch," Nel said.

"At least you act like an adult," Cliff said to her. "Most of the time, anyway,"

Nel let out a sigh. "I've told you before, social interactions aren't my strong suit."

"I know, you've said that a bunch of times already," Cliff said, giving her an indifferent look, "but it wouldn't kill you to take social interaction advice from Allisa rather than your collection of teen fiction books."

"They’re books for 'teens' so they should be the best source of information." Nel countered, "I was able to learn some basics about courting in this world from them so I can now recognize when I'm 'hit on.'"

"... There are so many things wrong with that I don't know where to start."

"Anyway, thanks for agreeing to take Sasha with you," Mirage said as she got up from the table. "I would but I got work to do."

Nel then got from the table. "We best be going too." She then walked towards the argument in the middle of the room and broke it up by flipping Max and Yuki. "See you later," She said as she physically dragged the two boys out the exit. Melvin and Sasha followed after Melvin said goodbye to Cerberus and dismissed him.

"That chick is scary," Dale said.

"I.... have to agree there," Cliff nodded.

The pain of a double life

"You seem tired," Lucy said to Allisa as the two walked to their lockers in school.

"I'm fine, just woke up with a headache again." Allisa moaned.

"A headache?"

"Uh... don't worry, It's nothing."

The two then reached their lockers and started fumbling with the padlocks to retrieve their books.

"Well, on more exciting news, have you asked 'you-know-who,' to the autumn ball this week?"

"Huh?" Allisa looked a little confused. "Wait, its this week!" she then fumbled with her head. "Aw, I totally forgot!"

"Lucky you have me around, huh?" Lucy said as a joke.

The autumn was one of the four balls the high school hosted, each one coinciding with the current season. It was pretty much a normal dance and held some cultural meaning of the town.

"So, Are ya?" Lucy edged.

"I-I don't know," Allisa said nervously, "I mean, I don't think he notices me that much so..."

"Ah Ah, No excuses." Lucy said firmly, "Today, you're gonna ask him to the dance."

"Have you got someone?" Allisa asked in defense.

"Don't change the subject," Lucy said quickly.

Just then Francesca turned up, took one look at Allisa and quickly looked the other way. "S-Sorry," she stuttered to them and walked away.

"Shesh, I know I said I didn't want to see her, but this is getting creepy," Lucy said, watching Francesca hurrying away from the two. She then turned to Allisa. ".... Did something happen between you two?"

"Huh? N-No, nothing like that!" Allisa said quickly.

Since the incident three weeks ago, Francesca had been doing her best to keep out of Allisa's way. Her attitude hadn't changed much, however, she was notably quieter. Bill wasn't any different from what he was before, probably since he was socially awkward so no one could tell the difference. Tristan was the biggest change, however. He dropped out of whatever gangs he was apart of, and was now protecting kids from the bullies, which got him into more fights than previously. There was one instance where some of his old 'friends' ambushed him and was going to break his arm. Unfortunately for them, Max and Yuki happened to stumble past and ended up putting the delinquents in the hospital, which Cliff chewed them out for. Despite that, Tristan's attitude didn't change, and he still protected people, even though he was getting more hurt in the process.

Allisa's biggest concern was Lucy. She seemed to be getting a little more suspicious that Allisa was hiding something. At one point, she even openly asked if there was something Allisa was hiding from her, which Allisa lied and told her it was nothing. Allisa didn't know how long she could keep up the lie.

"Hey," Lucy snapped Allisa's concentration back, "you ok?"

"Y-Yeah, just thinking," Allisa said as she finally opened her locker.

Lucy didn't look too convinced. "I know I've asked this before but, did something happen over summer vacation?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary."

Lucy put a finger to her lip and thought. "Where did you go again?" She asked.

"Huh? Um," Allisa thought for a second. "Somewhere near New York." She lied.

Lucy still didn't seem convinced.

"Hey come on. I promise I'm not hiding anything." Allisa reassured her friend.

Lucy then shook her head and smiled. "Sorry. Just some vibe I've been getting."

Allisa couldn't shack the guilt of deliberately lying to her friend time and time again. If she told her then...

Actually, She didn't know what it would do.

"Hey! I know!" Allisa said suddenly. "Why don't we hit the mall tomorrow, you and me?" Lucy looked a bit puzzled of Allisa declaring this out of the blue all of a sudden. "Come on, it will be fun."

Lucy let out a chuckle. "Well, if you're that desperate to hang out together, I guess I could."

"Wha- I didn't put it like that!"

Lucy giggled back. The bell then rang, indicating the beginning of class. As they began to walk away, Lucy asked something. "Hey, We're best friends, right?"

"Course we are," Allisa replied. "And nothing will change that."

"Hope not," Lucy said quietly.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

****

At Lunch, Allisa summed up any courage she had to confront her crush, Aston.

"H-Hey Aston." She said nervously.

"Oh, hey," Aston said, turning, "what's up." he said with a smile.

Allisa gulped as she tried to put words together. "Um... Well, t-the autumn ball is coming up, so, I was wondering...." She started twiddling her fingers. "Would you... you know... go with me... to the ball?" her heart was racing.

"Oh. Sorry but Micelle already asked me."

Allisa's heart then sank. "Oh," she muttered. She then put on a fake smile to him. "Ok, thanks. S-see ya." She then turned and quickly walked away.

****

The girl's bathroom was completely deserted, which suited the girl just fine. It was lunch, which meant Allisa would have gone off to the woods on her own. For the past three weeks, she'd been observing her trying to master her power. It would have been the perfect time to kill her, but Cob hadn't given the order. Watch and observe, that was all she had to do, for now at least.

She fumbled to put on her special coat that suppressed her mana; an invention of one of her colleagues. Just then her phone buzzed. Looking at it, she saw it was a text from Francesca. Apparently, she was being held by the Alchemist three weeks ago and was rescued by Allisa. Since then, she was under increased observation. If everyone knew about Allisa then it could make the girl's job more difficult. If necessary, she would be silenced if that risk were present. Even if they were friends, the girl's mission was too important to engage in such meaningless nonsense.

"Hold it!"

The girl froze when she hired a voice behind her. Tilting her head slowly while digging out a crystal from her pocket, she saw the red-haired assassin standing at the entrance of the girl's toilets, slowly walking towards her.

"You know who I am." The Assassin said seriously, "So let's cut to the chase, shall we?"

****

Suddenly, a light appeared in the coated girl's hand. Nel halted her advance when she saw it. Before she could react, a powerful gust of wind blew her out of the toilet, bursting through the door. As onlookers gathered around, the girl burst through, shoving people aside as she ran.

"Get back here!" Nel shot up and chased after the girl. After a brief chase, Nel made it outside, with the girl nowhere in sight. "Damn it!"

Ever since the second day of School, Nel had been sensing some kind of murderous intent, an instinct she picked up along with her sensor ability. Whatever it was, she could tell that it was not normal for the school. It was a strong intent to kill. She told no one of this, especially Allisa, since it seemed to be directed at her specifically, and started spending her free time looking around for the source of the negative feeling.

At long last, she finally found something. She saw a girl going into the girl's toilets, alone. Nel couldn't help but be suspicious. Then she saw her putting on a coat, which seemed to mask her mana. It was clear that this girl wasn't a normal girl. What's more, she could know about her, the others, and Allisa. It seemed her hunch was correct. Unfortunately, it seemed that she lost her.

As Nel bashed against a nearby wall in frustration, a buzzing sound came from her phone. Mirage had insisted that each one of them had a cell phone for emergencies. However, Max destroyed his by accidentally broke his seeing if it was fireproof, and Yuki generally didn't care and lost it a day after receiving it, leaving Nel and Melvin the only ones with phones. The message also reflected that.

"From Cliff?" As she read the message, she put the phone away and looked skywards. "All of us huh? Something big must have happened."

****

"Vermillion Strike!"

A wave of flames detached from Allisa's blade across the small pond, parting the water with the strike as it impacted on the rock face nearby, leaving it with another scorched scare.

"Six,"

She then brought her blade back and summoned a large amount of flames. "Vermillion Strike!"

This time, the flames released dissipated shortly after leaving the blade, barely making it to the water's edge. After that, She dropped to her knees huffing and puffing. She said to herself as she dismissed her blade and sat down properly.

"Still on Six."

Allisa had been doing this once a day for the last three weeks, ever since she gained the power of Azure Flame. Despite its power, it had a major drawback, how much mana it used just to muster flames, an effect she felt in the battle with both Rubrik and the demon. After explaining to the Elder about the transformation he recommended that she trained herself using the new sword form. After demonstrating its power to him alone, he said that her problem lay with her ability to control her mana, and therefore, wasting large amounts of her power unnecessarily. So, she had to learn to control her mana flow into her sword.

His training regiment was very simple. Once a day, Allisa would use her most powerful move which used the most amount of her mana as many times as she could before burning out. The idea was that it would gradually improve her control, therefore allow her to use Azure Flame more effectively. When she began her regiment, she could only get off two and a half before dropping down from exhaustion. After three weeks she managed to bring that number up to six. The main drawback to the training, of course, was that she felt shattered afterward. Which was a problem when he had sports immediately after lunch.

As Allisa lay on the ground, she got lost in thought, mainly about what had just happened with Aston.

"Ahhhhhh...." she growled, rubbing her head. "What's wrong with me? It's not like I was expecting anything. I knew he'd say no before I asked, nothing bad happened." The more she tried to get that event out of her head, the more upset she ended up. "Am I, just not good enough?"

"Yo," Max then walked up to Allisa. "You ok?"

"Oh! Y-yeah, um..." She said surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to see if you were ok." He said as he sat down next to her. "You looked kinda sad after talking to that guy."

"Huh?!" Allisa's face went red. "Y-you were watching?"

"No, I just walked by and saw you."

Allisa narrows her eyes at Max suspiciously.

"Seriously! I'm not stalking you or anything!" Max responded defensively.

"Yeah..." Allisa muttered. "You're not quite enough for that."

There was some truth behind that statement that even Max couldn't deny. "So... you love that guy or something?"

"Wha- No no no no, nothing like that," Allisa replied quickly, her face beginning to glow. "I-I mean sure I have a thing for him... But I wouldn't say I love him or anything."

"Ok, sorry," Max said, calming Allisa down. "So, what were you talking about that got you so down."

Allisa looked at Max with another suspicious look. "Why so noisy?" she asked.

"Hey! I'm just asking as a concerned friend!" Max said defensively.

Allisa laughed a little. "I'm just messing with ya," She said through giggles. When she stopped, she looked down to the ground. "I... kinda asked him to the autumn ball."

"Autumn ball?"

"You must have heard about it at some point. The school's got posters set up, everyone's talking about it."

Max scratched his head as he thought. "Um... Nope."

Allisa's head dropped. "You're hopeless," She said with a sigh, "I was asking him to dance with me for that."

"Oh, and he said no." Max summed up.

"Don't have to say it like that," Allisa said pouting, "but yeah."

Max rubbed his head. "S-Sorry. Guess that's kinda rough."

"It's not just that," Allisa sighed, "just, it gets frustrating having to go to these dances with no one." She huddled up as her expression of sadness came over her. "It would be nice to have someone to go with me for once."

Max sat quietly for a second before finally speaking. ".... Hey, what about me?"

"What about you?"

"Well, if you don't want to be alone, then I'll take you." He said with his usual grin.

"Huh? Wait, What?!" Allisa's face went red again. "Y-You mean... you?"

"It's just if you don't have someone else," Max said quickly when he noticed the change in Allisa. "You can say no if you want."

"Um... Well," Allisa started twiddling her fingers, "Wh-Why asks me?" She muttered.

"Um..." Max put his hand to his chest, "I guess, it's my way of saying thanks."

"Thanks?" Allisa stopped and looked at Max. "I don't think I did anything for you."

"Actually... it's what you said to me when we first met." Max's grip on his chest tightened. "You were the first to see me as an ordinary person and not a monster, or a special case, or anything." Max smiled to himself. "After so long being treated like I was a monster, it really meant a lot."

"M-Max...." Allisa smiled at him. No matter what she felt, he always found a way to lift her spirits, even if he wasn't even trying. Just then, a beep came from her phone. Taking it out, she saw it was a text from Cliff.

"What is it?" Max asked leaning close to Allisa to look at her phone screen.

"It's from Cliff." She replied. "The Elder wants to see us."

"What for?"

"Doesn't say," Allisa then spied a 'P.S' part that almost made her laugh. It read, 'tell the suicidal maniac and sir-eats-a lot when you see them.'

"Wha- Is that suppose to be me?" Max said as he read that section, not hiding the annoyance in his voice.

"Who else could it be," Allisa said as she closed her phone, trying her hardest not to laugh.

"So what'd you think the seriously old geezer wants?"

"Nothing I'm gonna like, that's for sure."

Summons

After School, Allisa walked back with Nel, Melvin, Yuki, Max, and Sasha back to the Hunter's home. When they arrived, Cliff, Mirage, and Dale were standing by.

"Yo, good to see you again." Dale greeted Allisa.

"What's going on?" Allisa asked him.

"Not a clue." Dale shook his head. "Elder says he needed to speak to you guys about something important."

"All of us? Did something happen?" Melvin asked.

"Is it bad guys?" Sasha asked.

"I don't think it's that serious," Margie said to Sasha. "Elder wouldn't have kept us in the dark if that were the case."

"Aw," Sasha sounded disappointed.

"So what does the old man want?" Yuki said as he took a seat at the kitchen table. "And where is he anyway?"

"Right here." The Elder said, standing behind Yuki, nearly scaring him half to death, jumping up from the seat and was about to draw his sword on reflex.

"Where'd you come from?!"

"I just got here." The elder said, stroking his beard.

"That doesn't answer my question!!"

"Elder has a habit of surprising people," Cliff said as he took a beer from the fridge.

"That still doesn't answer my question!"

"Anyway, Is something up?" Allisa asked the Elder.

"Well," The Elder turned to face Allisa. "The Arch sage wishes to speak to you."

"Dran?"

"Master?" Melvin said looking surprised.

"He needs all of you to return to Avalon at once. Says it's urgent." The Elder continued.

"Huh?" Allisa didn't think she heard the elder right. "Wait," she then pointed a finger to herself. "Does that mean me too?"

The Elder nodded.

"Huh!? I can't just drop everything to go to Avalon!" She argued.

"Must be important if he requested all of us," Nel said to Allisa.

"Alright, finally! I was starting to get homesick!" Max said enthusiastically.

"It would be nice to see Rowin and Mira again," Melvin said.

"Speaking of which, I need a word with that old coot," Yuki grumbled with Rowin in his mind.

"Wh- hold on!" Allisa blurted out. "What about school? I can't just disappear without a reason! What am I gonna tell my parents?!"

****

(1 hour later)

"And so we'll be borrowing your daughter for a week at the most." The Elder said. "I promise you she'll be in good hands."

Allisa sat quietly by thinking over and over 'this isn't going to work.' Right now she was sitting in her living room with the Elder and Mirage sitting beside her. Right now, both of them were giving her parents a reason why their daughter was going to be away for a week according to the Elder. The reason wasn't exactly what Allisa would say. Apparently, she was asked by a charity for her help for a field trip to Europe for homeless children.

"Where exactly are you going to be going?" Herb said, being a bit skeptical. He'd been like that over the past three weeks. Apparently, the explosion in the labyrinth had attracted the attention of the government who had made the east woods off-limits. Since then Herb had a bit on edge.

"Belgium." The Elder said promptly, "We are going to explore the battlefields of World War 1."

Belgium, Thought it was in France... or, Germany? Allisa's knowledge of history wasn't the best. She knew George Washington and Roosevelt at least (Just), but her grade average for the subject as D-F.

"It's funded by the charity I worked at." Mirage chipped in. "They've done this kind of thing before. I recommended Allisa to them along with a few others."

"Sounds like it will be fun," Alicia said, bringing a tray of Coffee and placing it on the table.

"Hold on," Herb interrupted. "why my daughter? You seem to be a bit specific on her."

"D-Dad!"

"I assure you she is going of her own will." The elder said calmly. "This was entirely her decision."

"Nonetheless, it still seems fishy to me." Herb continued, not willing to let his suspicions slide. "She's only just started school."

"She will stay on board with her studies I can assure you."

Herbs didn't ease up on his scrutiny. He questioned the elder on certain aspects, and the Elder responded to every question in a calm manner. Allisa was impressed that the Elder was keeping up with her Dad. He wasn't too controlling over her, but there were occasions where he was more controlling than usual.

"Sweetie," Alicia then interrupted Herb's barrage of questions. "Can we speak for a sec." The two then went into the kitchen, leaving Allisa alone with Mirage and the Elder.

"Sorry about my Dad." She said to them.

"No worries," Mirage reassured her. "You can see how much he cares for you."

"You would be grateful to have a father like that." The Elder said.

"Yeah.... lucky me." Allisa sighed.

****

"You have to think this is a little suspicious," Herb said to his wife. "Something's going on with our daughter, I just know it."

"I think you're being paranoid," Alicia said.

"Am I? She didn't contact us once while she was away during the summer. And three weeks ago, she had bandages on her the day after that massive explosion. And I can't put my finger on it, but there's something different about her."

"Sweaty, you need to calm down." Alicia guided her husband down on the seat. "I admit, things have seemed strange recently, and I have noticed the change in Allisa. But I know our daughter isn't one to do things without good reason." She took a seat and placed a hand gently on Herb's. "I think she takes on after my mother."

"I know. And that's what scares me."

"Well, I trust her," Alicia said, "and our daughter is a smart girl. I'm sure she knows what she's getting herself into."

Herb sighed a big sigh, seeing that he had lost his argument. "I hope you're right," he said grudgingly, "I hate it when you play that card."

"It's because it works," Alicia said playfully.

She then got up and went into the living room to tell Allisa that it was ok to go. Herb remained where he was, praying in his head that nothing bad would happen to his daughter.

With all the strange things that had been happening, the serial killer, the massive explosion, shady government tips blocking off the eastern forest, and then that same morning when he went to see Allisa, who was surprisingly still asleep, he saw a bandage on her head and some bloodied bandages on the floor, he was on edge. When she finally woke up and Alicia checked her body for injuries at his request, she was completely fine, with not even a scratch.

Ever since Allisa had got back from summer vacation, she was acting slightly differently, so slightly that he couldn't tell what it was. She was also being very quiet on what she actually did at this summer camp she went too, not giving out any details, even to Lucy, her best friend.

"Just what have you gotten into?"

Second departure

Allisa made her way through the woods to her spot in the pond, which was the agreed meeting place where she would meet her friends. It was the dead of night so navigating was difficult. Nel had insisted that they went separately rather than going together which was the reason why she was trudging through the dark in her Avalon clothes. Her mom managed to talk her dad into letting her go on this 'trip.'

Personally, she didn't want to go in the first place. Her life was complicated during the whole incident with the Alchemist and Homunculi, now she was going back to Avalon, during School. She hoped it would be something simple, like meeting someone important, or something that didn't take too long. Of course, with her luck lately, that was wishful thinking. If nothing else, she hoped she wouldn't be away for too long.

When she arrived, Max, Melvin, Nel and Yuki were already there, making her the last, all of them wearing their Avalon Clothing.

"Looks like we're all here," Melvin announced.

"Alright. Let's get going." Max said, holding out his hand with the ring. "I'll do it!"

"Not yet," Nel said. "We're still missing one."

Everyone looked around confused. "Um... Were all here, aren't we?" Allisa asked.

"Oh good. You all made it."

Allisa turned round and saw Cliff approaching.

"C-Cliff?" She exclaimed.

"Hold on!" Yuki blurted out, pointing at Cliff in disbelief. "Don't tell me..."

"Yep," Cliff held up his left hand, which had a void ring, "surprised none of you noticed. I have had this on for the past three weeks."

"Seriously?" Melvin and Max said in unison.

"I noticed," Nel said matter-of-factly.

"You're not seriously coming with us?" Yuki said, not hiding the annoyance from his voice.

"Is that a problem?" Cliff said to him.

"Um... I'm glad you're coming and all, but why are you?" Allisa asked him.

Cliff gave her a quick grin. "Elder told me to accompany you guys after the business with the Alchemist. So as of now, I'm officially part of your team." he then shot a sly grin at Yuki, "Which means like it or not you're stuck with me."

"Well, I don't have a problem with it. After all, you did save us back then." Melvin said.

"Yeah, you were awesome back there." Max grinned at him.

"Great," Yuki's head dropped, "stuck with another guy I don't like."

"Well, deal with it," Cliff replied to Yuki's comment. "So, guess we should be off."

"Ok." Max pumped up his fist and pointed to the pond with his void ring.

"Remember, Master's study. Nowhere else." Melvin pressed anxiously.

"Yeah yeah. Open!" The portal opened before Max and he leaped in first. Melvin followed along with Yuki.

"Well, See you on the other side," Cliff said to Nel and Allisa before running into the portal.

"Here goes," Allisa said as she walked forwards.

"Hold on." Nel stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Can I ask you something?"

"Um... What?"

"At school, do you have any enemies?"

"Enemies?" Allisa said, confused. Judging by Nel's expression she could tell she was serious. "Um... What do you mean by enemies?"

Nel considered her words carefully. "Someone who would want you dead."

"Huh?! N-No! Nothing like that!" Allisa said immediately. "Wh-what's this about anyway?"

Nel was about to answer before she stopped herself and shook her head. "It's nothing." She then walked towards the portal and disappeared in it before Allisa could ask again.

"Someone who wants me dead? There's no way.... I think." She let out a sigh and glared at the portal. "Well, here we go again." She then raced towards it and leaped in. the portal then closed behind her.