Arriving at Gruen

After leaving early the next morning Alex summoned the four wheeled vehicle and started driving towards the Grand Gruen Volcano. As he didn't want to spend too much time traveling he resume ones Zenith after they left the city far behind them and spent the rest of the trip fly leisurely towards one of the most dangerous places on the continent.

***

"You know, it might be a better idea to walk from here instead since there could be some kind of trap or pit ahead, you really don't want to drive the suv into such a thing do you Alex?" Anne pleaded desperately as the entire group faced the massive sandstorm that permanently surrounded the Grand Gruen Volcano. Alex smiled a bit nastily at Anne's words and answered,

"But there's the threat of monsters hiding beneath the sand and within the sandstorm, plus we would need Kuroka to constantly maintain a strong enough barrier to keep the wind and sand off of us while also bearing the heat. Whereas instead we could cram into a suv for several minutes that has several built in weapons to deal with any monsters that show up, is built to withstand even a missile blast so it can easily protect us from the wind and sand, AND it also has air conditioning. I'm sorry Anne, but the choice is obvious." Anne groaned at Alex's words, while her face already seemed to have a greenish hue just from imagining getting into a motor vehicle and driving over the loose sand with several dunes to go up and down on. Her only relief was that they estimated they would only need to be in it for roughly ten minutes to pass the entire storm. And so, with no further arguments besides who was sitting next to Anne, everyone crammed into Alex's suv that just barely had enough seat rows built in to let them all fit inside. With everyone seated inside and the ac going full blast, Alex shot forward into the brown blob of sand ahead of them.

"LOOK OUT!" Kaori screamed almost instantly after they entered the sandstorm, as a massive sandworm shot out of the ground ahead of them. Alex however didn't even flinch as he pressed an icon on the touchscreen panel in front of him, which prompted a mounted gun to pop out from the hood of the suv. After the vehicle drained a bit more of Alex's magic power, an intense beam of light shot out and instantly obliterated the sandworm that was closing in. Kaori and Shizuku just stared in shock as bits of blood and gore from the sandworm got caught up in the sandstorm outside, before two more blasts brought them back to their senses as another sandworm on each side tried to ambush them, leading to the mounted gun swiveling and immediately eliminating both.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The sound of several explosions from behind them caused almost everyone to look back, only to see Hajime in the furthest seat back with a casual smile on his face and another rain of blood and gore behind him. As another sandworm surged up from behind to attack, Hajime summoned yet another of his handmade grenades directly outside the vehicle that instantly exploded and obliterated the attacking monster. Like this the vehicle continued unperturbed as Alex took care of the monsters in the front and sides, and Hajime took care of the ones from behind. The worst moment as they drove through the sandstorm was actually when a massive brown spider charged them from the side, and poor Shizuku nearly had a panic attack when she saw it. With Kaori comforting the poor girl, the suv passed the last part of the storm and once more the group saw the blue of the sky, and the massive active volcano ahead of them. Reluctantly everyone got out of the air conditioned vehicle after judging that it wouldn't make it up the climb, and Rias said while wiping her brow,

"I can't believe it, but it really is so much hotter here than it was before." With her face still slightly green from the drive Anne replied,

"That's probably because we're right next to an active volcano as well as in the desert, it'll probably get even worse by the minute as we continue." Alex nodded in confirmation of Anne's words and said,

"The entrance is at the top and then we'll be going through who knows how many levels of magma and fire filled tunnels as we make our way down, no wonder the seventh floor is the lowest anyone's gone before. Let's cut out a lot of walking and fly straight to the top." As everyone wanted to be done as soon as possible there was no complaints so Rias, Kuroka, Yue, and Shia all spread their Devils wings and took off while Tio used her dragon wings and Hajime swept Kaori into a princess carry, and stared using his 'Air Platform' ability to swiftly follow them. With Kaori's delighted squeals fading away Alex turned towards Anne who also seemed to be eagerly anticipating him carrying her up the mountain, only to be disappointed.

"Anne you can use your telekinesis to carry yourself up while Grayfia can follow in case you need help." Anne was surprised at Alex's words and asked,

"What do you mean I can use my telekinesis to fly? It won't work will it?" In her mind telekinesis was simply a power that allowed one to move stuff with their mind, and so the thought of using it to fly sounded weird to her. Alex however said,

"If it's trained and used right telekinesis is actually one of the most overpowered skills out there, not only would you be able to move your own body to fly in the sky, but you may be able to even manipulate matter at the microscopic level." After hearing Alex's words Anne decided that she may need to spend some time training her telekinesis in he future so that she could do the things he claimed.

"I'll give it a try!" She said confidently,before closing her eyes and focusing cutely. It only took a couple of minutes before she started lifting off of the ground, and then hovered about a foot above the sand. She then opened her eyes and declared,

"I did it!" The moment she broke her conversation however she started wobbling, causing Anne to start flailing her arms around as if she was trying to keep her balance instead of floating in the air. Alex chuckled lightly and said,

"Good job, now start heading up and Grayfia will keep an eye on you." Anne nodded enthusiastically and turned to face the mountain before slowly flying up and forward, seemingly forgetting her desire to have Alex carry her just a moment before. Both Alex and Shizuku smiled as they watched Anne's childlike joy at flying by herself for the first time, before suddenly Shizuku felt something hit the back of her legs and she was swooped up into a princess carry.

"That just leaves you with me, let's go." Alex said, and before she could protest he took off into the air after Anne and Grayfia. Shizuku gasped at the sudden lightless sensation and she immediately wrapped her arms around the only thing she could think of to keep safe, Alex's neck. He smiled at her reaction, and said in a singsong tone,

"I can show you the world~" this caused Shizuku to look at him questioningly before realizing what he said and hitting him lightly on his chest.

"Knock it off." She said, but there was a small smile on her face. Now that her initial shock wore off she looked around as Alex flew with her in his arms and enjoyed the view, she had to admit she was currently quite comfortable. The enjoyable ride soon came to an end however as Alex quickly reached the top of the mountain where everyone else was already waiting. As they landed however all the girls frowned when they saw how comfortable Shizuku seemed in Alex's arms, and some of them even looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes. As she stood Shizuku looked around and saw the looks she was getting and said while blushing slightly,

"What?" No one said anything however and simply looked away at her questioning, while Kaori started giggling slightly at her friends predicament. Alex shook his head at the girl's antics and said,

"Now it's time to delve into the labyrinth, Kaori and Shizuku remember to be on your toes as this is nothing like what you've seen of Orcus. Not only will there most likely be monsters stronger than what you're used to, but we'll also have to deal with even more heat than now along with fire and magma, and that goes for the rest of you as well." Everyone nodded seriously as they looked down the opening stairwell with caution, before following Alex's lead as he started down into the mountain.