100 Grand Chariot!

Now standing inches away from Minerva, Chen gently brushed the stray strands of hair in front of Minerva's face before caressing it with extreme tenderness.

"I'm not even going to pretend to know how you're feeling right now, because I don't. But what I do know is that I'll always be by your side. I'm here for you, always." Chen said with all sincerity as he gaze at her with such care and warmth.

Minerva didn't know what got into her, but what she felt after hearing the words that Chen just uttered, made her heart started going a hundred miles per hour.

From the time that she first met the shy young new recruit when he was being bullied, to the time that she almost beat him to death by following her to her secret place at the guild. She remembered the times when the young man would tell her stories of the outside world, finally giving color to Minerva's gray and dull life that she always had. She remembered the time when once upon a time, Chen annoyed the hell out of her and wouldn't speak to him and avoided him like the plague. Minerva saw the hurt in Chen's eyes all along, whilst she was doing so, but Chen never once let it bother him for too long but instead he just kept a safe distance between her and him, respecting her boundaries.

Minerva was so foreign to the thought of friendship, that at first she thought that Chen had an ulterior motive when he first approached her. As the years went by and Chen's rank went up, their secret meeting at Minerva's secret place became more and more frequent. Unbeknownst to Minerva, she had started opening up to Chen after two to three years of their so called "companionship".

Chen always respected Minerva and does whatever Minerva wished, which made Minerva think that the young man is trying to curry favor with her. There was a time when Pietro wanted to separate the two as revenge to his sister, so he used that very mentality against both of them. This mentality almost completely tore their relationship apart, to the point where Chen went into coma for three days. That was the second time that Minerva ever laid hands on him, almost killing the young man.

When Chen woke up from his coma, Minerva had expected him to start avoiding her. But to her surprise, Chen acted like how he would normally act around her, as if him almost dying by her hands had never happened. He would always show up at their secret place, would always respect her, and sometimes even sneakily smile at her.

It was then, Minerva finally realized Chen's pure and unadulterated intentions of being friends with her. Minerva took quite some time to fully understand what friendship meant, but Chen stayed by her every step of the way. The two went through hardships under Pietro's wicked and revenge filled mind, but it only strengthen their bond more than ever.

Minerva only knew life inside the Castle. She desperately wanted to break free from the shackles that tied her to the Castle, and Chen's stories of life outside from Castle had became Minerva's new motivation to keep going. Knowing that she could have a different life outside of the Castle had excite her. This was one of the initial reasons why Minerva only let Chen near her. This also motivated her to make the choice of leaving the Guild that practically raised her. Even then, knowing that it would risk his life, Chen still followed after her.

The words that just came out of Chen's mouth had always been true, whether it may be in the past or present. Chen has always been there for Minerva.

Chen might've not noticed, but Minerva always knew that he was always nearby, silently watching and supporting her.

Staring directly at Chen's eyes, Minerva asked the question that she always wanted to ask the young man in front of her.

"Why do you insist so much on being around me? From experience alone, you know that I'm not the best person to be around with."

"Because I know what it feels like to be alone. When I first met you, I had this feeling that even though you have so many people around you, chasing after you, and always singing your praises. It felt like you were still alone. I felt like we have a kind of a kindred soul." Chen answered.

Hearing Chen's answer, Minerva finally understood her feeling for him and is no longer going to run away from it. Cupping Chen's face with both hands, she pulled his face to her and kissed him straight on the lips, making Chen's eyes widen in brief surprise before kissing her back.

Minerva didn't only learn a lot from Isabelle, Alex and Pearl, but she also learned a lot from Fleur as well. Being the woman that she is, liking to take the imitative, Minerva pried Chen's mouth open, deepening their kiss even more. As their tongue dance with each other, Chen's brain almost went haywire, frying most of his remaining rationality to nothingness.

They only separated when both was out for air. Breathing hard, Minerva and Chen starred into each other's eyes with intense desire and growing adoration for each other.

Suddenly a loud clearing of throat broke the pink atmosphere around Minerva and Chen, making both of them turn to the source.

"GET. IT. QUEEEN!!!" Pan squealed in excitement as she cheered for the budding romantic couple.

Ji Soo blushed like no tomorrow. Bobby gave the couple a knowing smirk. Nadet quietly blushed on the corner, not knowing how to properly react. Charlie has the biggest grin on his face as he claps adorably. Caleb on the other hand only starred at them with a single brow up and smirk.

"Guys, I'm very happy for the both of you, but I just wanna remind everyone that there's still Shadows present" Caleb said in urgency when he saw the Shadows that Pietro summoned has finished their meal.

"Umm... Guys, I know that those Shadows are problem, but isn't that also a problem on it's own?" Pan said, getting everyone's attention. She was pointing at the sky, where a pitch black bird flapped it's wings frantically to get away from the back garden.

"The hell! That thing is trying to escape!" Bobby said in distain

"Not in my watch!" Pan said as she began digging through her bag.

Next thing everybody knew a beautiful and romantic carriage stood before them. Attached to the reins are six pure white pegasi.

"A carriage?" Caleb asked in confusion, not knowing what to make of it.

"It's what we do with the carriage that matters." Pan said "Now, somebody slice the carriage in half, horizontally" Pan gave out the instruction to no one in particular.

"I'll do it!" Teddy raised his hand with enthusiasm, before running towards the carriage.

With a wide swing of his scythe, the carriage was cleanly sliced in half.

"Nice one Teddy! Now get rid of the top half!" Pan instructed with an encouraging smile.

"Okay!" The young boy nodded enthusiastically before slicing the top half of the carriage into fine shreds. It was so finely sliced, that it turned into dust.

"Good job Teddy!" Pan praise the young boy, while patting his head.

Pan then got in the carriage turned chariot.

"What are you guys waiting for, get in!" Pan called

"I'll be more help here on the ground than the air." Minerva said "Besides, someone will have to hold the fort here"

"I'll stay he-" Chen was about to say that he would also stay when Minerva cut him off.

"You go" Minerva told Chen

"But-" Chen was about to reason with Minerva when Minerva held a finger up, making him to abruptly close his mouth in silence.

"I'll be fine, they need you more up there" Minerva said, leaving no room for arguments.

Chen was reluctant at first but finally agreed in defeat.

"Minerva, Ji Soo and I will be holding it here on the ground. You guys do your thing up there" Bobby said as he and Ji Soo stood beside Minerva.

"You got it!" Caleb agreed "Remember, no one dies!"

"Guys! C'mon let's go! We gotta hurry!" Pan called out again, this time with great urgency.

The moment Caleb, Charlie, Chen, and Nadet got inside the chariot, Pan wasted no time in getting the pegasi to start moving. As the chariot began moving, slowly it lifted off the ground.

"Hold on tight guys, this is going to be a bumpy ride!" Pan instructed her passengers as the chariot began flying into the air at a much faster pace.

"I get that we have to stop the bird from escaping, but what are we suppose to do?!" Chen asked, as his knuckles started turning white from how tight he was holding onto the chariot, to prevent himself from being overthrown.

"Be creative!" Pan just replied, like it was the most obvious thing to do.

"Uhh... Guys, we've got company!" Nadet shouted, alerting everyone.

Seeing the flock of Shadows that's hot on their trail, Caleb let out a groan of frustration.

It was then, that a brilliant idea suddenly popped inside his chaotic head, that Caleb felt like his mind was bright and clear again.

"Charlie, you're on protection duty! Do your best to make sure that no Shadows will be able to get pass you, understand!" Caleb instructed

"Got it!" Charlie replied in confirmation, his voice laced with great determination.

Lifting both his hands in the air, Charlie focused all of his energy on the palm on his hands. Hands now glowing golden light, Charlie summoned four gigantic shields around the chariot. Constantly circling around the chariot, the shields successfully prevented any attacks the flock of Shadows had attempted.

"Nadet, can you give this chariot wings for stability?" Caleb then turned to Nadet.

"I will do my best!" Nadet replied with grit

Lifting both hands on either side, Nadet's eyes started shining with mystical glow. Molding the light around them, Nadet made a pair of brilliant wings attached to each side of the chariot. Now having two gigantic wing stretched out, the chariot's previous turbulent flight became more stabilized.

After the chariot started stabilizing and Caleb got his balance. He then closed his eyes and summoned his spear. Pointing his spear forward, Caleb began harnessing the two unique energies inside of him and started combining them. Once his energies are combined, Caleb opened his eyes. With eyes now flaring with purple flames, Caleb freely let his energy flow towards his spear, engulfing it with purple energy. As the spear slowly became enveloped by Caleb's energy, it also slowly started growing in length, while the tip grew in size. Completing what he had set out to do, he turned to Chen with a big grin on his face.

"Do your thing!" Caleb said in encouragement.

Seeing Caleb's confidence and trust in him, Chen's eyes filled with resolve, he nodded. He then unsheathed his sword. The moment he unsheathed his sword, lotus petals started dancing around him. Thrusting his sword forward, a raging vortex of lotus petals began forming on the tip of Caleb's spear.

Seeing what they have accomplished, Caleb couldn't help but fall more in love with Isabelle. Isabelle was the woman that broke all stereo-types, and taught the way she knows how to teach. She broke boundaries and trained everyone with great creativity that no one could've think of. "Unison Raid" was also one of her conceived ideas that has now came into fruition. With great coordination and unwavering trust with each other, a team of Gifteds can combine their gifts to create one powerful attack.

Successfully combining all their gifts together, they created one of the most unimaginable things ever existed.

"Alright guys, HERE WE GO!" Pan informed everyone before the chariot started moving at max speed towards the direction of the raven.

"Unison Raid: GRAND CHARIOT!" Pan shouted before letting out a battle roar, urging everyone to follow in her lead.

With a symphony of battle roars and cries, the chariot speeded through the air and pierced through the raven, preventing it from getting away.

Pan immediately turned the chariot around, giving them the perfect view of the raven's demise.

Witnessing the raven finally gone, the young men and woman erupted in cheers as they celebrated their victory.

"We did it!" Nadet shouted in celebration

"Comin' in clutch!" Pan shouted in joy.

"We-we really did it!" Charlie said, beaming in excitement

It was only seconds before the raven was completely defeated, but unfortunately another problem arose, preventing the passengers to celebrate further.

"Guys, we have to head back to where Minerva, Bobby and Ji Soo are!" Chen said in urgency, seeing as the Shadows are about to break through the front mansion.

"Roger that!" Pan directed the chariot to the front of the guild straight away.

"Please guys, just hold on for just a little longer!" Caleb muttered under his breath as he thinks about his friends.