(http://imageshack.us/scaled/large/209/kdgr.jpg)<br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Ralena Tharin</span><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Shadow Crow headquarters<br/><strong>With:</strong>Luca, Alice, Lyuk<br/><br/>Ralena took Lyuk's hand, using it to get back onto her feet by the time Alice came crashing down to join them and Luca came casually strolling down the stairs, having been the only one of the four that hadn't tumbled down instead. "Yeah yeah..." The black haired girl stretched her arms over her head, hitting a sore part in her forearm and wincing a little as she rubbed it. "Oh, that sucked." Around this time she heard Alice get back to her feet as well, letting out some smart little comment about how she was fine until Ralena came up with another plan to try and get them all killed, at which point she looked back and glared fiercely at the blonde. "Hey! I don't see YOU getting us inside! Sure it might not have been the most safe thing ever, but it worked didn't it? Just goes to show that if you can't punch down a wall, that you're just not hitting it hard enough!" Ralena punched her open palm as if to emphasize the point, smiling confidently now that she seemed to be shrugging off her minor injuries that she took during her trip down the stairs.<br/><br/>After that the group moved on, knowing that they didn't have much time to waste on idle banter with the entire world's magic power on the line. The four would travel down the hallway for a couple of minutes, going at least beyond their initial line of vision down the lengthy corridor but not that much farther beyond that, while the hallway was pretty lengthy all things considered, it actually wasn't the unreasonable monster that a few of the Fairy Tail mages could have been expecting going into it. After those few minutes of walking the four mages came out into what appeared to be a large, wide open room. Dead in the center of the massive room was a staircase leading further downwards, but it was blocked off by a bright glowing blue barrier, this time very visible and obvious. On each corner of the staircase was a pillar extending upwards, with a trail of blue energy feeding the pillar and running down to the barrier. Looking around, it wasn't hard to see that the barrier was being supplied by four different power sources, since each of the trails of energy seemed to come from  a different room in at each side of the central chamber.<br/><br/>Ralena looked around, taking it all in before she turned back towards her allies. "Wow, this is really elaborate..." Before she could speculate on anything more then that, though, a voice rang out behind them. At the very least, Lyuk and Alice would be familiar with it. "Oh hey! You guys finally decided to show up!" Turning around, Ralena saw a particular red haired mage standing on top of one of the pillars, his arms crossed as he looked down at the group with a confident smirk. Without giving the chance to let Ralena speak, Gaius continued. "The guardians of the old world vs the heralds of the new world... Should be pretty interesting, don't you think? Well, to help you guys along a little bit, I figured I'd toss an illusion out here to let you guys in on the setup we've got down here. You know, it's only polite." Ralena looked between Gaius and her allies, jabbing her thumb towards Gaius. "Who the heck is this guy?"<br/><br/>"Anyway! As you can probably tell, these here stairs lead to the main ritual chamber, where the big boss himself is preparing to drain the world of magic as we speak. If you wanna get down there, you're  going to need to cut off all four of the power supplies to the barrier. Each power supply, however, is being protected by either yours truly, or a Shadow crow elite. I believe you've all met in the past. Anyway, put down all 4 of the power sources and you can go down to fight the boss man himself. If you can beat him, you win. Time's of the essence, have fun, fairies!" With a final wave, the redhead's illusion vanished, leaving the four Fairy Tail mages on their own. Ralena's fist clenched, and she looked between the four doors. "So basically we've all got to fight our own battles here, right? I mean, we don't have enough time to 4-man every individual room. Well then what are we waiting for?" Ralena, without waiting for a response from her comrades, dashed off towards one of the hallways. Somewhere in her heart, she could feel a strange magnetic pull between her powers and the powers of the man that she had encountered before. Whoever he was, he wielded the same kind of power as Ralena, and it seemed that there was a slight resonance between the two of them because of that, that was what allowed Ralena to select the right hallway and go towards her fight.<br/><br/>She'd beat him senseless to protect a their world, and then she'd beat the answers out of him. Answers about who she was, where she came from, what her powers were... Everything.<br/><br/>...............................................................................................<br/><br/>When Lyuk picked a hallway he'd come to a room that was almost completely pitch black, no sources of light to be found except for a singular spotlight in the dead center of the room. Interestingly enough, that light put emphasis on a sword that had been stuck into the ground. Whenever he got close to it, Lyuk would hear a familiar female voice coming from nearby. "You didn't listen... I figured as much. You wannabee hero types are all the same..." Another spotlight clicked on, revealing the black haired girl as she sat on the edge of what looked like a stage, her legs crossed and her arms tucked into her lap. "I hope you like my parting gift to you, it seemed only fair, seeing as how I now have no choice but to kill you." The girl stood up, edging backwards on the stage as more spotlights clicked on. The room that the two of them were in looked like a concert hall, with a massive open area down in front where Lyuk was at, and a center stage that Emilia now stood on. On either side of Emilia was a massive line of speakers and amps, connected to a microphone that rested behind Emilia. The female shadow crow walked back, sliding her fingers along the microphone as she took her position behind it. Speaking softly into the mic, her voice would boom through the entire room. "Now, prepare for the performance of a lifetime."<br/><br/>If/when Lyuk tried to attack the stage, his assault would bounce back thanks to a barrier erected out of nowhere right in front of him. If he looked down across the lines of the stage, he'd notice runes etched into them. Rune magic was exceptionally powerful if it is given the time to set up, since people involved in the runes had no choice but to play by the rules given by them. The runes lined across the entirety of the stage, acting as an inseparable wall between Emilia and Lyuk. Upon inspection of the rules on the Runes, they would read as follows:<em>"To those who find strength in tragedy, to those who have lost everything, we allow entry."</em><br/><br/>So either Lyuk magically needed to suffer some kind of crippling, depressing loss, or he needed to find some kind of counter to those runes. Either way his time was running out, since on the center stage Emilia was taking in a soft, deep breath. It started with a small, gentle whisper, her eyes slid shut, a track began to play in the background, and the concert began.<br/><br/>Almost instantly, Lyuk would be able to feel a sharp, brutal pain piercing right into his mind. It seemed that Emilia's already potent magical power was being amplified tenfold by all the speakers on either side of her, and Lyuk was on a short clock before the song alone ripped his mind in half. If he had something in mind, he was going to need to do it fast. Perhaps that sword that Emilia gifted over to him was the answer.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">the song</div><div class="spoiler_body">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxXr59geAas</div></div><br/>...................................................................................................<br/><br/>In Luca's case his room would be dimly lit by a series of purple candles, with Gregory sitting in the center. His single exposed eye would open as he looked up at Luca, that same emotionless and hard look in his eye from the alleyway reappearing as he stood up and put a hand on the hilt of his blade.<strong>"You again? At least this time we won't be interrupted."</strong>It seemed that much unlike Lyuk's case, there was absolutely no need for words as Gregory drew his sword and waited for Luca to fully join him in the room. Out of the corner of his eye, Luca had the potential to notice the shadows in the room flickering in the purple light. The room was dimly lit with just barely enough light for shadows to spill over into nearly every corner of the room, meaning that it was basically a playground for the kind of magic that Gregory fought with. Then again, Luca had gotten a good long look at his potential during their fight in the alleyway, so perhaps he already had a counterplan already set up.<br/><br/>Either way, Gregory seemed to have the mindset of being quick, simple, and to the point. Though Luca's opponent might not have the same gimmicky flavor as Lyuk's opponent did, the odds of this fight being any easier were slim to none.<strong>"You will not stand in the way of a perfect world."</strong><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">battle theme</div><div class="spoiler_body">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhjP76oFg_I</div></div><br/>.................................................................................................<br/><br/>Lastly, when Alice came into the room that she had selected, Gaius would be waiting patiently, laying down with his arms behind his head and his back pressed up against the far wall. When he heard the clicking of shoes against the ground, one of his eyes opened and he looked up at Alice with a small smile. "I was kinda hoping that you'd be the one that showed up. Back in that bar, you knew full well how heavily I outclassed you, but you held your ground regardless... I admire that, you know? This time, at the very least, it didn't seem like there were any illusions nearby. This time she could rest assured that she was talking to the real Gaius. "Since you and your friends decided to show up, I'm just going to have to assume that you came ready to fight. Well, just like I said before, let's see just how determined you are to protect this world that you hold so dear."<br/><br/>One had to question though, why would a prodigy of an illusionist like Gaius want the world to be drained of all it's magic? It seemed as though he had every bit as much to lose from seeing the Shadow Crow's plan go through as Fairy Tail did, so why did he choose to stand in their way? Well, either way Alice wouldn't have much of a chance to think about it as Gaius got to his feet and extended his hand outwards to summon three colossal cards in front of him, their backs facing towards Alice. If Alice recalled back to their time in the bar, she'd realize that these cards had the same backs as his Tarot card deck did. "Let's be realistic here, a straight up fight between the two of us isn't really feasible, so how about we had an element of luck to it? You're a gambler, so you should be all for that, right?<br/><br/>One by one, he'd flip the cards over towards Alice, speaking as he went. Card number one is the fool. Selecting it will place a limiter on me, so that I'm only taking you on at 50% strength, should be fair. Card number two is Wheel of Fortune, the card you pulled before. Land this card, and lord only knows what could happen, pick this card and ride the chaos to victory. As for card number three? My personal favorite, the lovers. I'm not gonna say what happens if you land on this one, but let's just say that you're not gonna be much help to your allies if you do." With a small wink, Gaius flipped the cards back towards him, and all three phased out of sight for a second, shuffling themselves so that the card order before meant nothing. "Well, go ahead and pick."