Blade watched silently as the children exited from the mansion. He noticed that they seemed different... They had wounds which was not there the day before. Had they undergone training with themselves? No matter. He was no push over.

Peter stared at Blade. He still seemed groggy, as well as the other girls. Only Zestos seemed to be in tip-top shape. When they had assembled in the courtyard, Blade summoned his scythe from a black mist. The blade appeared to be made of pure silver. It was crafted like a saw, causing it to be even more deadly. He pointed the scythe at Peter, mock-threatening. "And now you are here to prove your worth. As one, you cannot beat me. As four? Let us find out." He began to float in the air. Spinning his scythe around, a cloud of black mist erupted from it and encircled the courtyard. The sun was no longer in site.

Zestos leaped forward and initiated the battle. he called to both hands his white flames. They encircled his arms and flared out. The flames turned into a bow of flames, complete with an arrow. Taking careful aim, he fired a shot at Blade. The arrow soared with remarkable speed. However, Blade simply knocked the arrow away with a swing of his scythe. Blade's body broke into black mist and he appeared behind Zestos. He reformed and stabbed at his shoulder.

Before Blade could complete his stab, a whirlpool of water enclosed Blade and buffeted him. Cerulean had moved forward and put both of her palms out. Peter had moved to Blade's left and Katie to his right. Blade broke out of the whirlpool and narrowed his light eyes. Zestos had turned around by then and had nocked another arrow. Blade went in for another slash, but found that he could not. A cube around his body had turned the area gray. While his mind was not affected, his body would not respond. Katie had used her time stopping powers; however, it didn't fully work on Blade, because Blade was much stronger than her.

Cerulean held both hands out, so that the palms were facing towards Blade. Her index fingers were touching, and a blue aura appeared. Torrents of water appeared from the palms, and swept at the immovable Blade. At the same time, Zestos's nocked arrow doubled in size and was completely white. Peter had summoned the shadows of all who were present and made them into three-dimensional forms of energy. The black energy he made hovered in the air. Katie made a white and red ball of energy. At one time, they all fired at Blade. Katie's attack wrapped around Blade and caused him to drop his scythe from his grip. Apparently, the orb had temporarily caused Blade to have the strength that he had 500 years ago-- none. Zestos released his arrow and it hit Blade square in the chest. His body burst into flames and his trenchcoat was then ashes. Cerulean's attack started as water and hit him in the back. He was then encased in a block of ice. Peter finished the combined attack with his shadows. The shadows sunk into the ice and engulfed him from the inside.

The group all had grins and was ready to celebrate from a well deserved victory. However, fate had another plan. The ice suddenly shattered and the shadows were dispelled. Both time controls faded away and he was no longer burning. Blade was standing there, without anything on. The group was shocked to find that Blade was a living skeleton! "Wha-a?" Katie exclaimed. Blade bent down and picked up his scythe. "Are you in shock or awe? You cannot kill me. I am already dead, so to speak." He looked at their unchanging expressions. "...You underestimate me. I'm not even showing you my full power yet." Peter was at a loss for words. They had used their attacks at the same time... Like a team. But here was this cruel joke! They could not so much as scratch him.

"If this is all you have... Then I will end it quickly." he said morbidly. Without warning, the grass underneath of Blade wilted into dust. It spread all the way to the mist barrier like a ripple in a pond. Black markings filled the air around Blade and wrapped around him. The black mist then spread from out of his body and engulfed everything in the barrier. The group was at extreme risk of decaying from the mist. That was not the only risk that was now presented to them. Blade's body broke apart and the bones floated in mid-air. They enlarged and changed in shape and recollected themselves. Blade now towered at fifteen feet above the group of four. He looked as though he were a giant, bone pterodactyl. Spikes made of bone protruded from various places. He was now garbed in a giant black cloak that reached to the floor from his neck. Four eyes stared down at them. "You have five minutes. Then I shall welcome you in death." He appeared to be serious.

Cerulean shook in fear. She was in fact the youngest of the group. "What...do we do? Our attacks are useless!" Zestos tried to calm her. "We fight until the end! That is why we're here. To fight." He put his hand out. Cerulean looked into Zestos's eyes and smiled. She took his hand. Another hand took hold of theirs, and then one more. Katie and Peter smiled. It was then that Zestos considered Blade's words. "As one, you cannot beat me...As four?" Four...Fourths of power...The Sol Core! He looked excitedly at his team. "Let us use our trump card...But not as parts, as a whole!" Peter showed concern. "But...it nearly tore us apart last night...I doubt that we've all really recovered..." The mist was beginning to kill their skin; pain was following.

Black orbs with orange centers filled the air. They rained down on the group and burned whatever they touched. They quickly dodged all they could. Blade mumbled. "Three minutes...or less, depending on your luck with those hellfire orbs." he swung his silver sickle and hellfire energy issued from it in the form of soaring ravens. Katie bit her lip but then said, "But how do we use the cores? I don't know how!" Zestos was taken aback from this. Not even he knew. He searched his mind as he dodged the feathers coming from the ravens.

How does one use their heart as power? It wasn't truly his heart that had the power...No...That would be too much of a cliché from a bad anime... The Sol Demon had given him a core. How could he use it? He did have the answer. Be as one. The attacks from Blade had separated him from his friends. He somehow worked his way back to Cerulean. Katie and Peter were together and nearby. He called to them, "I think I have it!" They rushed over. How much time did they have left? Seconds? "Join hands...I think it will be like putting the fourths of the orbs together." they did as he said, but nothing happened. "There has to be more to this..." Peter said quietly. He seemed dizzy. The effects from the mist were truly becoming dangerous.

Zestos smiled. "Okay...The only thing I can think of to do that would make sense, is to use our powers at the same time. Theoretically, we'd be using the fourths at once, creating a whole. Now on three..." They all closed their eyes and waited. "One...Two..." At that moment, Blade flew at the circle with his silver scythe. He raised it up in the air to ready for a swing. "Three!" Cerulean's hands glowed blue and connected to Peter's black, which connected to Katie's white, to Zestos's red, and back to Cerulean's blue. The place where their orbs had entered, their hearts, glowed with red, orange, and yellow in the eye pattern that Zestos now had. These rings encircled them and closed them into a sphere.

Blade froze. "That's...Sol?" The Sol energy around the quad burned through the mist around them, catching everything around them aflame. The sphere left them and rammed itself into Blade's chest. The impact caused the orb to expand and fully enclose around Blade's full fifteen feet height. The group stood side by side now and looked in awe at what they had created.

When everything cleared, sunlight was back to being present. Blade's normal body lay motionless on the ground in a heap of blacken ash. Most of the bones were shattered beyond repair. Blade groaned from the ground. "Explain yourselves..." He apparently did not feel pain. Peter spoke. "We received power from the Sol Demon." Blade grunted. "He hasn't been around for years... he just lives in his solitude. Why would he help you?" Peter shook his head. "Maybe he thinks we can do what he can't?" Zestos knew his reason, but he figured that it was somewhat of a secret that he was trusted to keep. "Anyways," Began Zestos, "Who's next?" Blade's skull stared at Zestos. "Megethos..." Katie raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't tell us much..." Blade spoke. "He has power over dimensions... Go rest. He'll fight you tomorrow." "Why tomorrow?" Cerulean asked curiously. There was in fact the rest of the day they could fight. "Because he is not here... he'll return late tonight." Katie nodded and motioned to the others to go.

While Zestos, Cerulean, and Katie left, Peter asked, "Will you be alright?" Blade stared. "I'll regenerate eventually...I have to form new bones..." Omni appeared behind Peter and put his hand on his shoulder. "My my...You decimated Blade... I'd expect nothing less from a Pantech." He messed with Peter's hair. "Hey..." Peter protested weakly. He smiled, however. Omni chuckled. "Say Peter...What is your middle name?" Peter raised an eyebrow at the random question, but figured it was a demon's attempt to make small-talk. "I don't have one..." Omni dropped his smile. He wanted to protest with a 'Yes you do!' but knew that he shouldn't. By saying that he didn't have a middle name, Omni knew that Peter's parents had kept something from him. "Interesting." he finally said. "Well...You'd better get some rest..." With that, he left just has quickly as he had come. Peter left Blade to regenerate as he made his way inside.