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Chapter 14

We reached Erza and Gray as an explosion seemed to rip through the volcano.

"That didn't sound good" Erza said, staring down the passage we'd come down. "Are you alright? Did you see the demon?"

"Oh she's fine" Lucy almost shouted. "You know, she only beat up the demon."

"What?" Gray cried. "But that's... we couldn't do it all of us together and you were the first one down. How did you do it yourself?"

"Oh, so you can use a mixture of all magics" Erza nodded, ignoring the confused look she got from Gray. "What did you use?"

"Natsu's fire and Wendy's air." I answer instantly.

"Wait, wait, wait" Gray held up his hands. "I'm lost. Please go from the top again."

Erza sighed. "Wren's magic at its full extent can use all other magics that use particles but of course, all magic uses particles so she has a library of all different types of magic possible."

"But that's impossible isn't it?" Gray cried. "I mean... how..."

I shrugged. "I have literally just figured it out myself."

"Guys" Lucy said, gripping Erza's shoulder. "Please can we move to somewhere higher up? I don't feel safe here almost. I mean, if that noise was the volcano erupting then the lava could easily get us here. We probably wouldn't have any where to run either."

Erza nodded. "That's probably a good idea. If we get trapped here then we're done for."

I gulped silently, already regretting it. "I could... I could get us all out if the lava..."

"No" Erza replied quickly. "You need to slowly introduce yourself to these things and not throw yourself into them."

I nodded and started to follow her as she went down one of the passages.

"Can you get hold of Wendy and Natsu?"

For a second I don't do anything and then, I pressed my fingers to my head.

"Not a good time" Natsu snapped and then he was gone.

"Erm... in a way" I removed my fingers from my head. "According to Natsu it's 'not a good time'."

Gray shook his head. "Knowing that hat head, he's probably overdone it again and made this thing erupt."

"Yeah, maybe that's it" Lucy said. "Maybe their near the lava which is rising so it's not a good time. He won't have overdone it so much that it  the volcano bubbles lava over the top Gray."

Gray shrugged and Erza started walking again. "We want to try and get to any of those rooms we found" she said. "They were clearly once inhabited by people who were used to the eruptions and built the rooms so that they were safe."

"In that case" Lucy suddenly appeared in my short field of vision, sprinting, and barged past me. "We should go. We're far underground so the lava will travel faster. I knew that, I just never thought it'd travel that fast."

We turned fast to see a stream of orange approaching a lot quicker than it should. I could tell straight away that there was no way we could out run it, spreading like a wildfire over grass in the middle of a draught. I cursed silently and spread my palms out in front of me. The entire floor of the passage, from my feet to just a few feet in front of Lucy, dissolved into a inky blackness which closed over our heads the second we'd all entered.

"What?" Erza tried to gain balance in the anti-gravity zone. It was hard to get used to in the beginning.

"I had to" I muttered, keeping my head down. "We weren't going to make it and we'd have gotten ourselves caught."

They all stared looking slightly disbelieving. I put out one hand to the side carefully and the dining room appeared. It seemed like it'd been weeks since we'd first arrived in it.

"I believe I'm slightly stronger and we are missing two people and two cats" I raised my head to meet their stares. "But I may still pass out when we leave."

Somehow, the glass that had been shattered had been fixed. Outside, the rocky centre of the volcano stood out with nothing else anywhere near it. I took a deep breath as I stepped out and was relieved to find that I didn't faint. The smallest wave of nauseous swept over me but I steadied myself in seconds.

"Now what?" Lucy asked, peering over the kitchen counter. "How are we going to find Natsu and Wendy?"

"I don't know" Erza said solemnly. "I think that if anything we should wait until the volcano stops oozing lava. It's started to appear on the window now so if we wait around twenty minutes we should be okay."

Nods came from all three of us. Someone's stomach rumbled and I suddenly realised how hungry I was.

"Well" Gray said, moving towards the fridge. "In the mean time, lets find something to eat, I'm starving."