Wizards x and x Hunters

Part Three: The Invasion- Almost There

     Back to when Erza was told to go ahead in the invasion:

     Without Kurapika's Archive, Erza had to do a lot of guesswork in order to find her way through the dome. She had sharp senses, so she could sense some lingering magic energy up ahead. That meant there was still another enemy in this corridor. She chose pathways judging on where she could sense the most magic energy.

     Her intuition had been correct. In the next room she entered, there was a women looking bored, leaning against one of the walls. It was as if she had been waiting. Word of intruders must have gotten around.

     The minute the woman saw Erza, she grinned, "Sweet, I get a target all to myself!"

     Erza quickly got into a fighting stance, summoning one of her swords. The woman seemed to get more excited. "And you seem to be a warrior. Even better!"

     "Well, you seem eager." Erza said. "And how exactly do you plan to defeat me?"

     "Oh, I'm not doing it." the woman said.

     Suddenly, something appeared next to her. It was a beasts, around the same size of Erza, but extremely long. It growled. The woman seemed very pleased with it. 

     "That will do it."

     Erza smirked. "So you are all talk after all."

     She requipped into her Heavens Wheel armor.

     "Unfortunately for you, defeating monsters is my specialty."

     A few minutes, and five Requips later, both the best and the woman were lying on the floor, defeated. Erza transformed back into her original armour.

     "Well, that was easy." she said. The SIA members were really not that much.

     Erza looked hesitantly at the next pathways in front of her. She had defeated the enemy so there was no magic energy to follow. She would really get lost.

     And despite her trust, Erza was getting worried about Kurapika. His opponent was no joke, she could sense it. What drive did Kurapika have to be able to take her on, one on one?

     Considering her options, Erza ultimately decided to retrace her steps. Going ahead would just delay her, it would be easier to find Kurapika and use the Archive again. 

     Getting the image of his red eyes and aura of vengeance out of her head, Erza turned around and went back.

     After getting almost halfway back to their original point, Erza finally found Kurapika.

     He was typing something in the Archive and he didn't look to be injured at all. Under normal circumstances, everything would have looked fine.

     Except for the fact that Kurapika's eyes were still red, and he looked... so sad.

     A few minutes after Kurapika's interaction with Machi:

     Kurapika had wasted no time getting out of the room after his talk with Machi. Her thread was now attached to his finger, leading him to the hidden room. He noticed that he was unable to update the more complicated route to the Archive and therefore activated Emperor Time in order to use his full Manipulator capability.

     But even without Emperor Time, his eyes would have still stayed scarlet. He was nowhere near calm enough in order for them to fade away.

     All he could see was red as his meeting with Machi played in his head over and over again. He had done the right thing, he knew that.