72 Survived...or not...?

Ashley yelled out for Theresa, as she tried to reached out for her, but, she was too late, the bullet's already out of her range. Her worries builds up, not caring if she'll fall, she just straightly, climbs up the plane, trying to save her friend from being killed. But then…

She gasped, as she feels the grasp on her hands loosen, she had her eyes widened, unable to process what just happened. Without her feeling it, she's falling, and her world, it feels like the time just slowed down, everything feels so slow, maybe, the Gods giving her the last time to see her friends, before dying from falling.

The world feels like slowing down for her, but not for the others, it feels too fast for them, faster than usual. Hector shouted, shouting Ashley's name with the top of his lungs, with his hand reached out, trying to reach for her, which is out of his reach. But, no matter what, he have to reaches for her, if not, she's going to die.

Chain shoot up in front of where Theresa stood at, right under the bullet in front of her eyes, the chain moves at high speed, and deflected the bullet that nearly get Theresa killed. Theresa widened her eyes, shocked at what happened in front of her eyes, she gasped sharply, holding her right chest, trying to calm her beating heart.

The chain goes back inside, leaving rattling sounds behind, making Theresa looked down, still shocked, but grateful.

Zeolite's chains shoot up under the plane, trying to reaches out for Ashley, whom is falling. 'I…I won't let anyone die…!' He thoughts, he shut his eyes, trying to focus on his chains, trying to control them to grabs Ashley's falling body. His chains pace was slightly quicken, since the plane is heading down, it makes Zeolite's chains easier to catch up with the current pace of Ashley's falling body.

If only Ashley was not unconscious, she could've reaches for Zeolite's chains. But, the amount of shocks she received must be so high, that makes her, the fearless girl fallen deep to unconsciousness.

"Dad! Hello? Can you hear me?!" Chiharu shouted to the mic, panics has filled her nerves, unable to think straight. "Chiharu! What's the matter? Did something happened?" Dr. Nicholas responds, noticing his daughter panics. "What's the distance between the plane and the ground?" Chiharu said quickly, hesitating to pulls the yoke up.

"Are you going to land? At this speed?! 280 km/h?! You're going to die if you do that, Chiharu! Change your plan, now!" Dr. Nicholas shouted, not wanting her to take risky choice. "Too late. I can already see the ground…" Chiharu said, she looked down at her hands, as her hands shakes violently, afraid of thinking what will happens to them.

Dr. Nicholas widened his eyes, shocked at what Chiharu's responds is, he quickly see the distance between the plane and the ground, as it revealed, there is a very thin distance between the plane and the ground, making it nearly impossible for her to be able to land the plane, since the plane's nose is in a very vertical positions, Chiharu need at least 320 meters to land, but, the current distance is less than 290 meters.

Zeolite's chains finally wrapped around Ashley's leg, stopping her from free-falling. He panted, feeling his Mana drains almost too fast than usual. "I got you…" He panted out, and slowly retracts his chains, before it's too late.

Theresa has gotten off the roof of the plane, with the help of Hector and Celine, she's able to go back inside safely. Celine stays with Theresa, trying to calm her down, while Hector ran to the cockpit, wanted to find out what's Chiharu's doing, since the plane is not in a good place.

"Chiharu! What are you doing? Do your job as a pilot!" Hector barged in the cockpit, while trying to fight off the gravity. And what he sees surprised him, he did not expected Chiharu to just stand there, doing nothing, while their lives is at stakes. He quickly get beside her, and tries to knocks some senses into her. "Chiharu! Why are you just standing around? You're supposed to be the one controlling the plane! Get a hold of yourself!" Hector shouted, while holding Chiharu's shoulders.

However, Chiharu's eyes looks dead, like she has given up the purpose of living. "Chiharu! Oi! Look at me! Look at my eyes!" Hector's persistence begin to walled up, still persistence enough to knock some senses to her. "…I can't…" Chiharu muttered, her tone of voice is very low, nearly audible to him. "Grr…Fine! I'll do it myself!" Hector got enough of bullsh*t he heard this day. He puts her down the chair, and faces the yoke in front of him, not knowing what to do, he just straightforwardly pulls the yoke upwards.

Celine was done calming Theresa down, by telling her everything's fine, they got this. "Celine…" Zeolite called out, with one eye shut closed, struggling to keep his place, as he panted heavily, nearly went pass his limits.

Celine quickly got beside him, supporting him. "Are you okay?!" She said, worried for him. "…Don't worry about me…just…save Ashley…I can keep going…" Zeolite said, exhaustedly, as he cough harshly afterwards, making Celine worries more. "…Y-Yes! O-Of course! Leave her to me…!" Celine nods, reassuring him. Zeolite smiles a little, and give her a little nod.

"…You just need to pull her back inside…I'm going to make her in range with you…" Zeolite said, telling her what she should do. "R-Roger!" Celine said, and quickly rush to near the door, as the winds gushed in, making her to covers her face from the sudden force.

She looked under her, looking for Ashley, as her eyes eventually catches Ashley's hanging body who is being pulled up slowly by Zeolite's chains. And when she's in her range, she quickly reaches for her, trying to grabs her leg. But then, the plane suddenly flies upwards, making Ashley's body to moves away from her.

'C'mon! You can do it…!' Celine thoughts, trying to tell herself that she can do it. Her left hand grabs onto the rail near her, while her right hand reaches out for Ashley, just a little bit more for her to grab Ashley's leg.

'A little bit more…!' She tries to extended her hand more, ignoring the feel of her arm stretched apart, she just can't let Ashley die just like that. If Ashley ended up dead, just because she was not able to reached for her, she might blames herself for years.

And after some more tries, she finally is able to grabs Ashley's leg, and without thinking more, she hurriedly pulls her up. But, things was never easy from the start. Because of the tenses she's feeling all the time, her hands got sweaty, which, makes it slippery to pulls Ashley up, and the last thing she saw, was her hand, that failed to pulls her up.

She gasped, unable to believe what she just do, but then someone's else hand interrupted her shocked state. "Don't space out yet! We got this!" As it turned out to be Theresa who succeed on grabbing Ashley's leg. Celine throws a quick glance at her, surprised by her sudden appearance, but quickly helps Theresa, by pulling Ashley's other leg.

"3, 2, 1, pull!" Theresa signaled, as the two of them pulls Ashley up at the same time, succeed on getting her back inside the plane. The two panted, getting tired from the tenses their having when Ashley's life at stakes. "…We did it…" Theresa smiles, offering her a high five, "Yeah…" Celine panted out, replying to Theresa's high five.

"Uhh….This isn't good!" Hector shouted, seeing how close the ground and the plane is. "What should we do Arkus? We're getting close to crashing!" He said, asking for Arkus's suggestions. "Can you make a shield? If so, hurry up!" Arkus yelled, frightened at how fast the ground seems to be more noticeable than before.

"I can't! I'm specialist at offense Magic!" Hector said, panicking as well. "EH?! What are we supposed to do now?! I don't want to die yet!!!!!!"Arkus shouted, as he begins to throw tantrums. "I don't know-" Hector was cut off by a sudden surge inside his veins and nerves. 'Do it.' Iris simply said, not even giving specific things that Hector needed to do. "Do what?!" Hector shouted, not knowing what to do. 'Don't complaints.' Iris said, before taking over Hector's body.

Hector's eyes changes to blood red eyes, telling it clears that Iris has taken over Hector's body for a while. He relaxes his body, clasping both his hands together, before muttering some certain chants. "By the wish of Shirogane bloodline, protect those peoples who are friends with the Shirogane from every dangers, Blessing of The Shirogane!!"