Fiore
Mount Barnaby
This was not his war, but it didn't forbid him to enjoy it to the fullest.
When he landed, face front, on Tenroujima, he didn't expect this world to be so much fun; it was loaded with magic, craziness, and adventure, no longer the threat of a [Heretic God] bringing havoc but a war against an immortal warlock, hell-bent on world extermination.
Give him one of those any day; he would cut him to pieces and send him crying to his mommy; a pissed off [Heretic God], on the other hand, was an entirely different matter; they could obliterate entire countries in the blink of an eye, and just left you in the middle of a massive wasteland, pondering what the frak has happened when you were not looking.
Oh, and the dragons.
This was the best world ever.
Magnus Blacksson, one of the most powerful Campiones of Midgard, has accidentally landed; a very painful landing by the way, especially after the desperate battle he fought with an entire pantheon; in Ishgar, more concretely, in the sacred ground of a Guild called Fairy Tail.
Not his brightest moment, but he could do nothing about it; his falling from heaven was not among his plans, being completely honest, Magnus was convinced that he was going to die in battle, a glorious battle that would forever be remembered but his last battle.
A lone warrior against an entire pantheon; he left them enough scars and casualties to not be soon forgotten; that much was for certain; but alas; he was one and them many, he was doomed to finally succumb to their superior numbers.
Campiones are God Slayers, Supreme Kings that ruled over mortals as they had stolen the Authorities of the same divine beings that they hunt and kill.
Magnus has been toss around like a rag doll inside of some kind of rift inside the divine plane on where he was fighting. It has been one of the worst experiences of his life, especially when aforementioned rift, stopped tearing apart his flesh and opted for tear apart his soul instead.
Yes, that had been a very painful and unpleasant experience.
His very essence was peeled; layer after layer; of what made Magnus thick, piece by piece, cut, flayed, tore and broken until only the core of his soul remains, the final piece that resume the essence of Magnus Blacksson, the most powerful and feared Campione of his age. When the rift ended with him, he simply falls from the skies, into a very hard and unwelcoming piece of land, somewhere along the seas of Fiore.
Broken, wounded and crippled in body and soul, Magnus could only lay in shreds until the Valkyries came for him, wherever he could be; not that he could identify the lands, his senses were utterly devastated from the odyssey through that accursed rift. Not precisely the best way to go, but he has fought to his last breath, and even if his sorry ass ended in the halls of Hella, he was going to made the goddess broke a sweat for his soul, Devil Kings like him never surrender, never bend to any authority that is not theirs.
They are Kings and Queens and will never be contained, not even by the goddess of death himself.
Not to mention, Odin had already mentioned him, that said goddess; Hella; was quite interested in him, something to do with how did he manage to beat the King of the End, the supposed natural predator of all Campiones, that only appears when they are too much for the world.
Well, all of that reminiscence, had no place now.
He was enjoying a war, and he was going to savor every single moment of it to the fullest.
Still, becoming a wizard of this world; so he could participate in the glorious war; was a total pain in the ass.
He had to blame whatever the rift was for that.
A Campione, who had lost the blessing of Pandora; if it wasn't so tragical, he would have laughed his ass off, however, it was the truth, his body, neither his soul; contained Authorities, anymore, neither he could sense the bless of Pandora on him. The blood of Odin, the blood of his sworn brother, was still running strongly inside him; possibly the only thing that has kept him alive and healing, in the middle of the catastrophic landing, he has done in the middle of nowhere.
[Jotunblut], the gift of Odin, the blood of the primordial giants of the universe, runs through his veins, making him way stronger than any human; the only blesses he seems to keep from Pandora where his unbreakable bones and instincts, like the ones of a feral beast. Slowly recovering his body, Magnus has to adapt to this new land, and in that process, he discovered that he was considered a wizard; it does seem that when he started to heal, his body substituted the usual godly magical reserves a Campione had, with the Ethernano of this world; the energy that seems to be the foundation of all magic.
Being brutally honest, he didn't give a fuck about all the wizardry world thing, he was Magnus, and it was more than enough for him; especially when he had such a virgin world in front of him to explore; vastly different from the realms he knew, back in his home dimension.
Oh, and dragons, and demons, and monsters, and...Yggdrasil blesses him; this world was a never-ending adventure.
The lose of his Authorities; except [Jotunblut] that has already merged completely with him; has been a serious drawback, it was comparable to the loss of a limb, that hollow in his soul was crippling and during the first weeks of his staying in Earthland, he felt that lost badly.
But he was Magnus and with the pragmatism that marked his people, he soon start researching for a way to overcome that loose of power, preferably slay a [Heretic God] and be back at the Boundary between realms, so he could have a chat with Pandora about this odd but wonderful realm and see if his Authorities could be recovered.
Even if he had to fight the entire Amatsukami pantheon to get them back.
He wanted his powers back, those were pieces of his soul, that pieces disappearance, hurt him a lot, even if [Jotunblut] had somehow turned his body into one capable of going toe to toe with an Eldjötnar( Fire Giants of Muspellheim).
Well, the inhuman strength; even for the wizard standards; was more than welcome, after all, this place was as hostile as his beloved Scandinavia was, but with a lot more beasts to hunt and test his might against them. Still, that magic that seems to abound so much around there was so different from what he knew, that the first time he fought a wizard, he was absolutely stunned to see how did they manipulate their magic, how they create magic circles of some kind and then unleash their spells; most of the time shouting the spell-like madmen.
He took good note of investigating about how the hell had they managed to do that; neither the Sjder, Galdr or the Sacred Runes where like this, all his knowledge about magic was sent flying out the window and then torched with extreme prejudice until not even the ashes remain. Magic was nuts in this world; it was at every bodies hand, it only needs training, diligence, and perseverance, until you had mastered how to mold the Ethernano inside of you and then turn it, into spells.
Curiously, it was rare to see a wizard that had fully mastered more than one type of magic; those that managed to reach such level of mastery over their magical arts, are considered exceptional among the wizardry world common magic arts practitioners. And almost every one of them are neck deep into the war that was tearing apart Ishgar; Magnus was not an exception, even if he was considered more a loose cannon than a real asset by any of the bands of the war. So far, only a bunch of people as crazy as him had been able to be around him, and among those, it does stand up a crazy and genius girl of gold hair and an unhealthy obsession with fairies.
Mavis Vermillion was as crazy as him, and Magnus enjoyed a lot the company of the little but wise girl.
Well, even if he didn't appear like he was a year past his middle twenties, Magnus was almost an eight centuries old former Campione; so he saw everyone around him like children in the best of the cases. Only spirits were older than him, and even then, it was not so rare for older spirits to retire and left their spots to their children, as an example, Magnus has already met a young Lupo; the Silver key Spirit of Canis Manor. When the war hit Fiore; in the form of a tsunami of demons and demihumans enslaved under the will of the demons; Magnus just smiled like a predator, now that was a good war to fight.
And he simply enjoyed it, using the few magic he had to learn from Mavis, and giving hell...well, Hell.
Most of the forces of the Kingdom of Fiore and his fellow wizard peers were convinced that he possessed some sort of Lost Magic; physically enhancing magic; that allowed him to fight bare-handed against Demons and demihumans like they were nothing. In a sense, they were not entirely wrong; [Jotublut] could be considered Lost Magic by their standards, however, it was not magic as they know it, as he didn't need magic circles or activation protocols like a lot of enhancing magic users. Magnus let the world believe that, it was a very convenient excuse after all; so far only Mavis has been clever enough to see past his bluff and call it bullshit at his face; Magnus really liked the funny girl, she was as crazy as any Campione and have a lot of power to back up her words if its needed.
Magnus was not a Fairy tail wizard per se; even if Mavis treat him like one, he has not been marked yet, mostly because he was never been on the Guild, as they meet during one of the missions of the war, and neither of them could travel back to Magnolia and made it official. On a side note; Magnus was pretty much convinced that Mavis wanted him in her guild only to flip the bird to the Council of wizards that seems to be the ruling conclave of the wizardry world of Fiore.
Not sure how are the rest of the countries organized, but so far, Magnus was not impressed by the Council; for him were nothing more but a lot of cowardly chickens that wanted everything under their control and were scared of everything that did not go their way. This war against a lad called Zeref, was not on the Council plans, and they were as freaked out as the rest of the wizards of this world. Magnus found all the situation quite humorous, mostly because he didn't know a word about this chump called Zeref; the strongest black magician, the immortal, the Dark wizard with Capital letters; all those titles were meaningless to Magnus; in all the years of war, he has not even seen him once. On the other hand, he had killed about a dozen of his demons, from a demon sword to a demon needle, nasty piece of work the latter, too obsessed with blood purity that one.
Magnus killed them only with the strength of his arms and the weapons he could borrow from his fallen foes or the occasional regiment of Rune Knights they found when they march to the battlefield. They were scared of him, every time he entered into a settlement of the Rune Knights to sharpen his weapons or to pick up some new ones, every one of the knights get the hell out of his way; ironically, he tended to get along very well with the logistic crews of said settlements, as they shared his pragmatism in times of war like they were living on. Magnus would love to have time to pick up some more magic, especially the kind that could make use of his freaking humongous magical power reserves; godly reserves, Mavis told him once, unconscious of how ironic the statement was; but there was barely enough time to pick some grub and keep his weapons in shape to indulge himself into studying a branch of magic that suited him.
Mind you, that he smirked like wolf in front of a bleeding deer when Mavis explained to him that there were legends about God Slaying Magic; if only she knew who was she talking with, she would have either run to the hills or cage him into the Magic Council Library so he could take his pick among the Slaying Magic buried there, and then toss him at Zeref. She would have been heating some popcorn to witness the match of the century. And Magnus did want a shot at the lad; it will be a perfect test to see how powerful he really was, he needs to test the body his minor Authority has crafted for him, as he recovered from the dimensional rift. It was that or hunt down a dragon, and he was not in the mood to run after the tail of the dammed beast, not to mention they could simply fly away from him, no matter how quick he could run.
He took a mental note to learn some kind of high-speed magic or flying magic of some kind, it would be quite unsightly to just stand on the ground as the beast flies away, leaving you with nothing but a Wtf face.
Those times of war had been good to him, on one hand, he didn't really need to create an elaborate cover, he was selling around the story about how he was a mercenary from Iceberg, born from the union of a giant and a human, looking for fame and fortune in this war. On the other hand, he could test his body to the limits and start categorizing what kind of magic he would like to learn in the future; if he was not killed during the war, he was pretty much convinced he was going to live way more than most of the races. Truth to be told, it was Mavis once again, the one that immediately noticed how weak his story was, as she had already read enough books about Iceberg to see through his lies, however; and that was another thing that Magnus was grateful for; she didn't dig too much on it, she preferred to have Magnus as an ally, and she; perhaps by her Fairy Magic or whatever six-sense she had; somehow knew that Magnus was not a bad person at heart. Once again, Magnus could only muss about what would she really thought if she ever learns about what he did as Campione, back in Midgard, when he was the king of a little kingdom near Scandinavian borders.
Fairy Tail was a very kindhearted Guild, they didn't like to kill; humans at last, demons and other dangerous monster are totally open game for them; and despite their destructive tendencies, they never cause any harm to innocent bystanders of civilians. Well, most of them, Magnus was seen Percht; one of Mavis most trusted wizards; been more than ruthless when the situation required it, not that he had nothing to say in the matter, but it was clear that he was sorely mistaken about how to approach this war.
Their enemies were not human; well, most of them were not; foolish cultist didn't count, those cretins were cannon fodder for Zeref and his demon generals in the best of the cases; Precht was trying to act like one of them, being as ruthless as the demons were, but his troops were not demons, they were humans, they suffer easily, they die easily, they are flawed and broken easily, even the most powerful wizards; who are considered monster by the rest of their kin; when they were trying to imitate the war strategies of the demons.
That is not a wise path.
Although, Precht did really care a lot for the wizards of Fairy Tail, something that Magnus could understand perfectly; they were family and family was the quirk that defined Magnus as Campione. Something that few noticed about the Campiones, was the quirk that every one of them acquired of developing once they became Devil Kings and are received by Pandora in the Boundary between worlds. In the case of Magnus, it was the desire of a clan, a family, a place to belong; Magnus was an old Nordmanni at heart, and old Viking of forgotten eras, who has been living for centuries and hated to be alone. Family or true bonds between people was what his soul craved for; Fairy Tail was one of those places, where he could see the strong bonds that all wizards seem to share with each other, they are more than comrades, they are part of something greater than them and they share a bond that can not be explained with words.
As a side benefit, Magnus and Mavis were one of the most dangerous duos that existed in the war; as Mavis strategies are flawless, Magnus provides the brutal force needed to those aforementioned strategies to be achieved. More than once, Mavis has called Magnus her Juggernaut, the unstoppable force that reaches the victory, no matter what kind of defenses or troops Zeref throw his way; still, she was trying to help Magnus to finally found a magic of his liking.
Basic Re-equip, Thought Projection, a knack for Transformation and some Runes picked up here and there, during their battles with demons and their mooks; was not exactly the most impressive resume one wizard could have, despite the incontestable success of Magnus each time they faced the armies of Zeref. Neither Magnus or any of his friends; in and out of Fairy Tail; had really the time to taught him, not when they were always on the road for the next battlefront or moving to intercept a splinter of the Zeref army.
As chaotic as it could sound, the army of Zeref was united under the same banner and purpose but at the same time, each one of the demons of Zeref had their own idea of how to achieve their objective.
They were surprisingly coordinate in their efforts to wipe clean Fiore; or all Ishgar for what it matters; but at the same time, each one of them wanted to be top dog, all of them wanted to be the one that gives Zeref what he desired. Ironically, Magnus was told by Mavis, that the Dark Wizard, was a man affected by a very nasty old curse, that stole the life of anything around him, using that same magic to increase his own life force. Death Magic of the worst kind; Magnus has already seen similar things, back in his own world, he had to deal from time to time with vampires and other essence stealer beings, not to mention how some [Heretic Gods] have some Authorities under their sleeve capable of those same effects.
In all, Magnus wanted a shot at the Dark Wizard, he would behead him, shred him to pieces, bury those same pieces in molten steel and send each piece in all cardinal directions; let see how the heck did the curse recover from that. On a curious side note, Magnus realized how soft was the wizardry world, they did have their own share of psychos and criminals, but in all, the killing was one great taboo. But only applied to humans, everything non-human was fair game for all of them, they even made Jobs or Missions form the hunting of specific beast and other kinds of dangerous monsters. Such dichotomy surprised him a little the first time he witnessed it, but Magnus had to remember that this was not his world, so the rules could be completely alien for him. Trying to compare his Nordmanni traditions with the ones of the Kingdom of Fiore was a complete waste of time, however, that didn't mean that he would just abandon his customs, it meant that he would have more difficulties to adjust to this new yet wonderful world.
Still, this was a good thing on his books; a constant fight against powerful enemies that allow him to test the limits of his body, a good bunch of comrades in arms, in the form of Fairy Tail wizards and the possibility of finding the perfect magic for him. Although, for the moment what he has mostly done was testing all kind of weapons he could put his hands on, and see which among them was more attuned with him and his brutal style of combat and his humongous magical reserves that could fuel spells of great power. In a sense, he most probably will be feared by the Council, as they are scared out of their minds from Zeref, and even if Magnus still hadn't the pleasure to cross blades with the lad, Magnus was sure that he could become like a nightmare as the Dark Wizard was, for all Earthland. Fortunately for them, Magnus was far from interested in such titles and goals, being the Dark Lord only grants you an enormous headache in the form of your own brand of fan-girls; namely Cultists.
Magnus saw a lot of those among the peers of his fellow Campiones back in Midgard, for what he remembered the Huntress of Afrika had an entire harem of man toys that worshiped her like a goddess; the Spartan, on the other hand, had an entire court of women to satisfy any need he could have, treating them like breed stock. It was incredible, how almost all Campiones, had a Harem of some kind; no matter male or female; perhaps it was a consequence of their enhanced desires, but it was almost a shared trait of all of them; they were exceptions, of course, those that imitated the virgin goddess and gods, and those that found a soul mate and belong to him or her for all eternity or until death finally befalls on them.
Back to the topic of being the Dark Lord, Magnus had already walked that road in the past; when he was conquering his Kingdom in Scandinavia; in order to conquer his kingdom, he had to resort to a lot of dark deeds; killing everything in his path being one of those deeds, if he wanted to make it clear for the rest of the world, that he was not one to be trifled with.
In a sense, he was the new kid on the block of Earthland, he was powerful; that much was for granted; especially after his latest achievements in the war; but he was neither famous or infamous, he was not known around this lands, and that respect that he had taken for granted in the past; in Midgard; was not there, forcing him to win it back again.
And he was enjoying the challenge.
It has been quite the long time since he had a real challenge; being the most powerful Campione of his era was good, and being at the top had his perks, but at the same time, it was very difficult to find a challenge; even the [Heretic Gods] were a disappointment from time to time, as he was as dangerous as them. Now, he had lost all his Authorities, except [Jotunblut] and he was not entirely sure if it was an Authority or something else entirely that Odin gifted to him when they became Fostbraethr ( Sworn Brothers). No Authorities, almost nothing of the bless of Pandora and all his knowledge about magic and gods of Midgard was practically useless. On the other hand, he was a warrior with centuries of battle experience under his belt, against opponents that were way out of the league of the humans; and all wizards of Ishgar, by the way; and he had been a thousand of different things at some point, from artisan to soldier.
Having thousands of Skills was good, much better than a one-trick-pony magic that all the wizard of this world seems to favor, if you are a skilled fighter before you master your magic or if you manage to effectively mix both skills into one, you are in a sure way to become a legend.
But these world magicians thought in a different way, they hunt Lost Magic and similar things like rabid dogs, convinced that it will make them invincible on the long run or that it will grant them all their wishes, no matter how strange those same wishes could be. Magnus wanted to find magic for him too, after all, one can not be called a wizard, if he couldn't do any kind of magic, but he was not that eager to waste his time in such a quest, when the glories of the battlefield and the parties with Fairy Tail were right in front of him.
He had the excuse of his [Jotunblut], to be some kind of enhancement magic, conferring him, inhuman strength and resilience, added with some magical weapons and a couple of runes to bobby trap his prey or increase further the capabilities of the few weapons he had managed to found, borrow or forge, in the always rushing state way of the settlements all around Fiore. That was one of the few things that he approved in this war; the King of Fiore was not a fool, he knew well, that he could not match the strength of the demons, so instead of massive, apocalyptic battles between the wizards and Zeref forces, he opted for a constant moving army, that hit the Commanders and Leaders of the armies of Zeref, before they got the chance to overwhelm the humans with their sheer numbers and powers.
Still, the demons are not really in a rush, such was his arrogance, that most of the commanding officers of the Zeref forces, just take their sweet time, playing around with all the humans they found, taking sadistic pleasure in torture them and twisting their minds to the Zeref armies. Speaking of whom, Magnus has never listened to one single occasion on where Zeref had been sightseeing, leading the armies under his name, neither doing anything in any place of Fiore or the nearby countries. Frankly, if it weren't for Mavis explanations about the lad, Magnus would be pretty much convinced, he was nothing but a convenient excuse for the demons to set loose; and it was not like they need too much for indulging themselves into whatever sick pleasures they crave for.
As an obscure piece of trivia about demons, he knew that a lot of the demons in the Zeref forces were specifically set into one determined task, as core of their identities and functions; however that same identity, became corrupted into a parody, up to the point, you only saw an abomination that should be put down as soon as possible. And when that occurs, Magnus; and most of the times, Fairy Tail too; is sent to deal with said abomination and whatever escorts is it carrying around. The last demon Magnus has killed was one of the so-called Etherious; a demon originated from one of the Books of Zeref, dark magic arts given life and thought; a sap called Etherious Rook Nightmare, or mostly called ERN by his subordinates.
ERN was a monster in all the sense of the world; a towering fifty feet giant, wide as a tower and with a body similar to a gorilla, with all his back and arms covered in red spikes, his entire body was covered by green patches of fur from where the bodies of humans, hung, in different states of decay, his scale body was sick yellow and his eyes were a pair of snot green orbs, that glowed with malice and hatred for humankind. It took Magnus and the squad of knights with him, three days to take down the damn monster, having to be extremely careful with the poisoning and illness aura he spread around, turning his victims into some kind of plague zombies, only moving thanks to the sickness that runs through their veins.
Long distance magic to open a path among the army of stumbling infected and then, a selected few charges in and engaged the monster in close combat, keeping it in one place, so a dozen wizards and all the knights they could muster, could make hell rain over the head of the demon. Magnus was partially immune to the aura of sickness, his body was more than capable of fight and vanquish the infection; but that didn't protect him from the sheer brute force of the beast, who annihilated almost all the knights with him and severely wounded and crippled the wizards around him.
After the first hours, only Magnus stood in the path of the beast, going toe to toe with the demon, tearing his yellow and putrid flesh like it was nothing and enduring hits that would have devastated any other person. Withstanding the punishment was not among his favorite tactics but there was no other choice if he wanted to give the support crew time to retire the wounded from the battlefield and win some extra time to finally gather some more reinforcements and overwhelm the dammed Zeref spawn.
At the end of the third day, and after a massive discharge of a lot of caster type magic; from fire to acid; the demon was weakened enough, so Magnus could take one of his most brutal weapons from his arsenal out of his re-quip magic and behead the accursed demon. The powerful strike of Magnus did not only behead the beast but completely tear apart the demon, in a shower of ripped flesh and innards, surpassing the demon unnatural resilience to all kind of physical and magical damage, by pure, unadulterated strength. Magnus Rune enhanced weapon, helped a lot too.
After that battle, one that cut short the strategies of the demons; or so did say one of the emissaries of the Council; all the survivors were put in a temporary retreat from the main lines, moving to one of the back camps of the Rune Knights, so they could heal and recover from the ordeal. Not that Magnus wanted to rest, so far the demon has been quite the challenge, and he was eager to test his skills and powers against the one that ordered ERN around; that perhaps would give him the challenge he was looking for.
The encampment of the Rune Knights and the military forces of Fiore was placed near the bottoms of Barnaby mountain, in a natural valley, surrounded by forest and peaks, that offer a good protection against possible intruders and who offers the people making a live with it, a constant source of wood and hunt. The place was more a hospital field than anything else, but considering the amount of wounded that came in every day, it was not precisely a surprise; this war was terrible for the soldiers and the wizards; ironically, if the civilians are clever enough to get the hell out of the place at the first signal of demonic presence; the civilians are the ones that are less pursued, well, if a demon find a village, they will have no qualms in burn it to the ground, but if the civilians had run before that happens; the demons will not pursue them.
Only a couple of demons had been marked as human hunters, taking pleasure in the thrill of the hunt; both of them Etherious class of demons, who Magnus was eager to face in the battlefield, to see if those auto proclaimed supreme hunters, were up for the name, after fighting the Huntress of Afrika in several occasions, Magnus doubted these demons would impress him, but it would be fun anyway.
Magnus awoke inside of his tent, his own tent; one that he carried around thanks to the eternal usefulness of the Re-quip magic; eying the ray of sun that filtered through the entrance, carefully disentangling himself from the sleeping woman at his side, but covering her with a second pelt; an action that earned him a mumbled groan from the sleeping woman; he walked out of the tent, and stretched his body to the morning sun of the encampment.
There was a lot of activity around, even if the dawn has barely risen over the mountain peaks; they were at war, and it was a common sight to see several carriages with supplies going in an out of the settlement and a new batch of reinforcements or wounded being taken into the hospital.
Any wizard with healing capabilities was recruited instantaneously and loaded into the first vehicle they could find, to bring them there or to any other field hospital around Fiore.
Magnus observed the place around him; his tent was among the tents of the mercenary forces that the kingdom contracted to reinforce their lines; at the beginning it only brought him problems and not few skulls to bust to make things clear, but after the first dozen skirmishes, everyone around has soon learned to respect the powerful mercenary wizard from Iceberg.
Six feet and half tall, and with the body of an athlete; Magnus was the image of a warrior, standing with his hairy torso naked to the sun, and scratching a five o´clock shadow beard; he took his shoulder-length red hair; with black stripes here and there on it; into a ponytail, picking a wolf-headed silver hairpin from his Re-quip magic to hold the ponytail, as he started to prepare a fire in front of his tent.
It didn't take him long to get a warm campfire, he performed the tasks for the campfire with the accuracy and quickness of one that has done the same thing a thousand times; he put a little pot over the fire, heating a new beverage that he had discovered by accident, at the same time, he let a handful of brochettes of spiced Hodras meat, roasting over the fire as breakfast. He had the sensation, that at some point during the morning, he was going to have visitors; not to mention, he had a guest in his tent, he would be insulting the rules of hospitality if he was not prepared to attend his guests, even if his house was nothing but a tattered tent in the middle of a military encampment.
Coffee and meat was a good way of starting the day, although it was a pity, he couldn't found mead around the places he had visited with the army, it does seems that this lands did not know of the glorious beverage of the gods called Mead, something he fully pretend to correct as soon as he could establish himself somewhere and could afford an adequate distillery.
Sitting on a root; his tent was placed near the borders of the camp, and the roots of the trees around have passed under the walls of the encampment; he attended the fire and the meat, before taking a long and thick piece of cloth from his Re-quip; at a painfully slow rate, he was very conscious of how Re-quip was nothing but a side skill for him; opening the cloth, showing to the morning sun, half a dozen of weapons, and the items needed to perform maintenance on them.
A broad; rune enhanced; cleaver, two daggers; although they were big enough to be called short swords; a massive Lacryma revolver, a Lacryma pump action shotgun, and a double-headed ax. All of them, magical items, looted and borrowed from enemies and allies alike, and for the moment, all his armory until he could find a magic that suits him. Each one of the items had quite the tale behind them.
He took one of the daggers; one that looks like it has been made with the bone of some animal instead of metal; and after preparing a whetstone, he began to sharpen and polish any imperfection on the edge of the dagger. He performs the same maintenance with the rest of the close combat weapons; exhibiting the patience of a saint, meticulously examining the weapons and applying the exact measure of pressure and care. He left the cleaver for the last, as it would require an extra amount of work because of the runes it sported in the sides of the blade.
He put the weapons in their places on the cloth, a piece of equipment that keep the weapons save from outside dangers, like water, rust, dirt, etc; they still need maintenance but under the cloth, they will never experiment rust or dirt, that could reduce their effectiveness. Picking up from his re-quip, a couple of spices tars, he turn the meat over the campfire, so it would roast equally from both sides, adding an extra layer of seasoning to the meat; the smell of the impromptu barbecue expand around his surrounding and more than one mercenary and soldier eyed the meat with barely contained hunger and envy for the feast.
Magnus took the revolver and took out; from the place, the bullets should be in the revolver drum; six cylindrical Lacrymas, the pieces that hold and unleashed the magic stored in the weapons, each time the trigger was pull. He cleaned the barrel and the compartment of the Lacrymas, oiling the mechanism of the trigger and closing his eyes, started to refill the Lacrymas of the gun; he was not a Gun Magic user, not by far, but he had magic power in spades and using the revolver and the shotgun, give him long-range options for the battlefield. Not to mention that Magnus was quite smitten by the idea of guns; the most advanced piece of warfare he saw in his home world were siege machines and catapults, nothing like this guns and cannons the wizards and the soldiers use during the battle.
He pick one of those magical guns for himself as soon as he could, and so far, he liked the weapons a lot; he was not precisely the best marksman out there, but he was very good with his revolver and shotgun, someday he would have to expand his armory and add some machine guns and rifles. Not today, but some point in the future, perhaps he would ask Mavis about the Gun magic, he did like it and it will be a perfect addition to his skills, to counterbalance his close combat skills.
Leaving the revolver, Magnus checked the Lacryma bullets of the shotgun, doing mostly the same with the shotgun than with the revolver, cleaning the weapon and loading it with lacryma bullets. Leaving both guns on the cloth, Magnus take a couple of tankards from his Re-quip and removing the content of the pot, he directly filled one the tankards from the pot; not really giving a fuck about the scorching hot liquid of the inside; filling the tankard and taking a sip from it.
The coffee was bitter as the devil, exactly like he wanted, strong and bitter, just what the doctor recommended to start the day, awoke and clear. The fizzle of the meat, as it started to leak delicious grease mixed with spices; a combination, that when it evaporated in the fire, created a delicious smell that floated around his camp like a siren song; called his attention to the state of the brochettes, Magnus pick up a tray from his Re-quip and taking the meat out of the fire, he put the roasted brochettes in the tray.
He took one of the brochettes and took a bite from the cooked meat; the taste was perfect, the meat was juicy and the spices made a perfect balance between the strong taste of the meat and the bitter taste of the coffee; he could have done better with a better fire or proper ingredients and seasoning, but for the moment, it will suffice.
Since he landed in Ishgar; more concretely Fiore; Magnus became quite the connoisseur, mostly because he has landed in a world where they had a thousand of different species of new animals, all of them who could be cooked and eaten safely by humans. Take the Hodras for example, those were massive pig-like animals, that can be domesticated; there were dozens of ranches of Hodras, as the animal; despite his violent nature; could provide with hundreds of pounds of edible meat. Magnus has already hunted a dozen of new animals, after the pleasure of the hunt he proceeds to test how edible the meat actually was, not to mention, the vegetables around Ishgar were a world of their own, and he was not only speaking about common, edible vegetables, like lettuces or onions; but the tremendous variety of herbs and fruits that had magical purposes, as potion ingredients.
Not a surprise Alchemy magic was a big hit in this world, the branch that deals with the potion making that is; there was a dozen of different branches of Alchemy magic, from manipulating magic, to create something from nothing, to distill potions, the list goes on and on...Magnus took a sip from his coffee tankard and grab the handle of the cleaver, finishing his brochette and tossing the wooden prick into the fire, increasing the flames that would keep the coffee hot for a little longer, not only for the woman behind him; still sleeping in his tent; but for the more than probably visitors he would have along the morning.
The blade of the cleaver was already corrected, after the nicks and damages it suffers, fighting ERN; he needed to arm wrestle his access into one of the forges that the Rune Knight had in the fort, but the weapon needs the repairs. With an oiled cloth, Magnus cleaned the silver runes in the sides of the blade. If those glyphs were to be destroyed, the weapon would lose any magical proprieties, and that was something he couldn't allow to happen; he didn't have anything to substitute the useful weapon. He could use the two-headed ax, but it was a weapon that absorbs the magic power of the user and released it, in the form of brutal explosions where the blades hit; not precisely the most controlled and versatile of the weapons; it was a weapon that served to clean up enemy formations of to cause a massive amount of damage in one wide are.
Satisfied that his weapon enhances were in good shape, Magnus proceed to adjust the leather straps in the handle, after the battle with ERN, he has noticed how the straps loosened a bit and he will tighten them, last thing he needed in the middle of a battle was to lost his weapons because the handle slipped out of his hands. Magnus could sense the incoming tackle of love from a mile away, Mavis presence was like sun of light in the middle of an ocean of colors; although in the camp was a lot more grays than it should be healthy; in more than one occasion, had Mavis told him how similar he was to her in that aspect, Magnus had a humongous magical presence, even when he was not actively using his magic.
Mavis arms surrounded his neck and the cheerful and brilliant girl hugged him fiercely, he could see her eyes sparkling once she saw the tray of brochettes, drooling a little in his shoulder.
"Good morning Magnus" greet the girl, before noticing the meat " oooh...something smells good...".
"Suit yourself little fairy" chuckled Magnus, resting the cleaver over his legs and waving in salute to the other two wizards that hanged around Mavis.
"Warrod, Yury" greet Magnus to the other two wizards with a smile "good to see you well, my friends".
"Yo, Magnus" smiled Yury, taking a seat on the root of the tree near the little camp of Magnus and immediately start squabbling with Mavis for the brochettes.
"Coffee?" offered Magnus to the most sensitive and collected of the trio, Warrod.
"Oh, thank you Magnus" thanked Warrod, picking up the cup, Magnus has offered him and using his own Green magic, create a sugar plant near him, using the natural sugar of the plant to lessen the impact of the bitter beverage of Magnus.
As Yury and Mavis ate the brochettes, trying to steal the pieces of the other, Warrod and Magnus talk about the last news in the camp.
"I take that you have been called here, after the battle with ERN" started Warrod, with the coffee in his hands "that worries me, Magnus".
"And with good reasons" nodded Magnus, leaving the cleaver in the cloth.
After securing the straps of the cloth, start to put it back into his Re-quip, a process that always took him a little, showing how it was a secondary magic for him at best.
"The Rune Knights are calling in a lot of tested veterans" continued Magnus "especially those who have faced an Etherious and could tell the tale".
"What I feared" sighed Warrod "there is another Etherious in Fiore and the council and the Rune Knights would want to hunt it, as soon as possible".
"Works for me Warrod" chuckled Magnus with dark humor "I am a mercenary, ERNs head had quite the reward on him, and another Etherious head on my wall will only do good to my reputation".
"I believed you were negotiating with Mavis about entering Fairy Tail" raise an eyebrow Warrod, for all he knows about the man, he was like a fearsome tiger, controlled until the prey is near, then he becomes ruthless and dangerous.
"Aye, I am" nodded Magnus "but it will be after the war" specified Magnus "I am a warrior Warrod, and a second Etherious; not to mention I am possibly one the few around here that could face him and survive; was a challenge I could not ignore".
"Well, I would not say, I can understand you Magnus" confessed Warrod, who was not a violent person at all "but if that is how you want to live, by all means, go ahead, just made sure you survive; Mavis would be heartbroken if you die on the battlefield, your had became a very good friend for her..." Warrod smile grew mischievously "not to mention how sad will be a dozen or so, of fine ladies; for what Yury and his drinking pals could pick up of the gossip mill of bars and taverns".
"Ha!" barked like a laugh Magnus "what can I say Warrod, I fight hard, I party hard" shrugged Magnus with an amused smile.
"Magnus" called Mavis the attention of the man "the rest of the guild are asking if you could cook for them tonight? pretty please?" asked Mavis with sparkling eyes; she tended to do that a lot, it was like an enhanced version of the puppy eyes, and honestly, those were devastating.
"I will be honored" sighed Magnus, knowing full well, that Mavis will never let him go, once she was determined to have a feast tonight, Magnus was a very good cook, a little limited in recipes, but the taste was always great.
"What is the Guild celebrating?" asked Magnus taking a sip from his tankard, noticing how quickly the coffee get colder.
"Everyone got back alive, and sparky here, is an S-Class now" smiled Mavis, head locking Yury, who protested for the nickname and the treatment.
"Congratulations Yury," said Magnus " now, all three of you are S-class" commented Magnus.
Warrod smiled and shrugged, not really interested in that things, but Yury and Percht were longtime rivals, and finally, Yury has reached the same status as his friend and rival.
"Heck yeah" grinned the man under the arm of Mavis.
Despite the childish appearance of Mavis, she was stronger than she locks and with her expertise in Illusion magic and her superior intelligence, was not really a surprise she became the First Guild Master of Fairy Tail.
"Sparky performance lately has been great and both the council and me, believe he deserved the rank" tightened Mavis the hold on Yury "however, he still is a hothead with more magical power than common sense and brains".
"Mavis!" protested Yury, tickling the girl, who release him with a burst of giggles, just to suffer his wrath in the form of a lot of tickles.
Mavis Vermillion, the First Master of Fairy Tail, one of the most respected and feared guilds of Fiore, was ticklish.
The tabloids would eat it in spoons, after all, Fairy Tail, along with Phantom Lord and another dozen of guilds around Fiore, are a constant source of entertainment for the common people, from their constant adventures and jobs to their unique personalities. Not being a part of a Guild; Magnus has been able to prevent his apparitions in any of those abominations called magazines and newspapers; nothing but a waste of paper and ink the best of them, if not the biggest pile of gossip shit he has seen in all his life. Mavis counterattacked by chewing the head of Yury, who started to run around like a headless chicken, at the gnawing of his head by the little Guild master. Magnus and Warrod chuckled in amusement for the image.
The entrance of the tent of Magnus opened and the sleeping woman; dress with nothing but a pelt, like it was a blanket; exited from the inside, yawing at the rising sun of the morning and stretching her free arm.
Except for Magnus, the other present in front of his little camp, felt their jaws fall to the floor, at the image of the woman.
It was not about the image itself, it was a known fact, that Magnus was kind of a Ladykiller, but the data that send Mavis, Warrod and Yury brains into shock, was the identity of the woman.
A tall and physical fit woman around her late thirties, with a red hair up to the shoulders, tinted with a couple of gray and white stripes on the sides, her face was beautiful, yet it carries the hardness of those that had presence an inferno and lived to tell the tale. And she was the infamous Commander Ikaruga Lawson, the Commander of an entire regiment of Rune Knights and the person whom; supposedly; all the wizard and soldiers around had to report as soon as the next deployment was decided.
"Morning Ikaruga" greet Magnus like it was nothing, offering the woman a cup of coffee "your armor and weapons is inside the tent, cleaned and with maintenance done".
The woman just smirked and took the coffee from his hands, giving him a soft kiss on the lips, with a second, or two, of liberal application of tongue.
She took the cup inside, in order to dress in privacy.
Magnus took a sip from his own tankard and noticed how cold it was, tossing the remaining liquid into the floor, he filled the tankard again from the pot, he wanted his coffee hot and bitter, call it a mania.
For almost an entire minute, none of the other three said a word, and Magnus eyed them with a raised eyebrow, what was so shocking? Ikaruga was a beautiful woman, one of the best warriors and commanders he has ever seen, so it was not really that surprising he could be attracted to her.
Magnus type was always strong women, women that could hold her ground, both in and out of the battlefield; all his spouses of the past were like that, and Ikaruga; being a hot MILF warrior with decades of battlefield experience; was exactly his type.
Yury was the one that broke the silence, whistling slowly and in a quiet voice, before kneeling in dogeza position in front of Magnus and ask in devoted voice:
"Please, teach me your ways Magnus-sama!".
Magnus fell from the root when he was sitting, with a laughing burst, oh, the situation was so ridiculous, that he couldn't stop it. Warrod was as astonished as the rest, but he joined the man in his laughs, for the request and antics of his old pal Yury. Mavis, on the other hand, smacked Yury on the back of the head, scolding him for being nothing but a stupid womanizer and a lot more names, Yury tried to defend himself arguing about it was Magnus, the one that has scored with the hottest MILF of the Rune Knights, and possibly the commander of the army division Fairy Tail will be deployed with; and he wanted to know, how the hell has he managed to achieve such a conquer.
"By being a perfect gentleman most of the times, and a complete beast under the blankets" answer Ikaruga herself exiting from the tent with her armor and sword on.
She was still carrying her cup, taking sips from the cup; her tastes of coffee were different form Magnus, but she could appreciate a strong cup of coffee in this situation, don't to mention, it does get rid of any sleepiness, even if it was by piercing your brain by overloading the bitter taste buds of your tongue. Yury mumbled something, curling in depression at the side of the tree, Mavis patting his head as she would do to a depressed child; Warrod just smirked and nodded in salute to the woman, who nodded back. Magnus took the empty cup of the hands of Ikaruga, refilling it before she gave him a last and deep kiss.
"Thanks for a wonderful night, Magnus," said the woman, parting lips, and taking the refilled cup of coffee "If you found yourself near a place where the Fifth division is deployed, don't hesitate to join us".
"Eager to fight under your command again, Ikaruga" smirked Magnus, with a warm smile.
Ikaruga chuckled and waved goodbye to the rest of the present, as she walked inside the encampment, ready for a difficult morning on where she would have to be deployed in a hunt for more demons and cultist.
"This only cemented your fame as a Ladies man, Magnus" chuckled Warrod when the woman was out of earring.
"I don't like her" pouted Mavis "She is rude, always frowning and barking orders around, she is no fun..." her eyes, mischievously sparkled with that stars of hers "although you did squeeze a lot of fun out of her, yesterday night, no doubt".
"What can I say, lass? totally worth it" shrugged Magnus.
"As much, as I would love to see you and Magnus banter back and forth," said Warrod with a smirk "we are here for more prominent matters, Mavis" reminded his Guild Master about what they were there for.
"Ah, yeah!" blinked Mavis "I take that Warrod has already informed you of the new Etherious roaming around," said Mavis.
It was kind of astonishing how easily, she could change, from a childish girl to a serious and deadly Guild Master in the blink of eye, it does seem that she was bipolar, but it was a very common trait among a lot of high-level wizards; Magnus was confused as hell about it, how easily they could swing their emotions back and forth like it was nothing.
"There had nothing concrete but they are pretty sure there is another one" added Yury, sitting near the fire and tossing some little wood pricks from the floor to the campfire "so far, we had only seen a dozen of Rune Knights commanders, two S-class and a lot of wizards that flap their gums about being capable of beating one".
"I seriously doubt so" shook his head Magnus "Etherious demons are beasts of tremendous powers, especially those, that took his battle forms; those Etherious forms of theirs; when they deal with an enemy they could not kill easily".
"You are possibly one of the few that had actually bested and Etherious in single combat" commented Warrod "I am pretty much sure, that the demons those wizards had supposedly slain, were not Etherious, not even close the real deal".
"I was not alone in that combat" reminded Magnus "a lot of good warriors fall that day, so we could take down that sick monster; ERN; whose mere presence irradiated pestilence and plague, even then, I am pretty sure, those demons are not to be underestimated, they are books, not living beings and books can be rewritten every time, they are needed".
"That's...a very good point" said Mavis "and one that agrees with my theory of how Etherious are nothing but distractions; we need to take down Zeref, not their little book puppets; but for that, we must eliminate the head honcho of the Demon Forces of Fiore, forcing Zeref to recover his book before we burn it to the ground".
"Mard Gerd Tartarus," said Warrod "the so-called, Underworld King, he is the leader of the Etherious and the one that is obsessed with fulfilling the desire of Zeref to finally die".
"That arrogant, little piece of shit is mine" growled Mavis "he has caused enormous pain to my Fairies and I am going to kick his ass so hard, that he would never be capable of sitting ever again".
Not that Magnus did not understand Mavis fury, but she found adorable how murderously dangerous could she be when on any other moment, she was the usually adorable Fairy Tail, First Guild Master.
"Still, I am waiting for the "but" in the argument" commented Magnus.
"Mard never lefts his flying fortress of hell" explained Yury "he had a bastard of an Etherious; Etherious D´mongo Soul Stealer, the Skull Stealer; doing his dirty job, killing powerful wizards and anything that cross his path; using the souls he stole, to further increase his powers, up to the point on where they could feed enough energy to Mards supreme spell and kill Zeref".
"That is one of the worst plans I had ever ear," said Magnus raising an eyebrow "does this Zeref lad, has even thought about how all he has done so far, has been nothing but hammer tactics?".
"All of them, those Etherious" grunted Magnus, " they are nothing but hammers in different shapes and Zeref is the nail, he only tries to overpower whatever made him immortal, and so far, he has failed miserably".
"More or less, what I thought" beamed Mavis "all the Etherious that we have encountered so far, are always the same, accumulating power to kill Zeref with their curses or magic or swords or whatever the hell, they had on their cores".
"But D´mongo...that's a nasty piece of work if I ever saw one" snorted Yury " the problem, is that he has developed a taste for collecting souls; the stronger the better; and Mard has given him a free card, to do whatever he wanted in Fiore".
"He is going after us then" smiled widely Magnus.
Mavis sighed, she really expected that Magnus would be delighted by the news, as she got to know better the powerful man; even if she knew that he was not an Iceberg citizen, not by any means; she has already deducted the mile-wide violent streak he had, even if he has a family man, if she has ever she one. Well, considering how she has been most of her infancy as a slave, and the rest mostly alone with Zeira, until Yury, Warrod and Precht appeared on her turf and take her out of her island into an ever ending adventure; she was not precisely one to judge.
Still, her instincts were never wrong, and despite the infamy that Magnus carries around, Mavis could tell the redhead was far from being a bad man, he was powerful as hell, and people often feared powerful beings like him. She even doubted, she could call him human, although, more than once has she being feared by her Fairy magic spells so she could relate to how Magnus tried to retain his humanity, by simply being cautious around everyone around him; only with his inhuman strength, he could cause serious wounds, even if it wasn't his intention.
"After each S-class, he could find" pointed out Warrod "he looks quality over quantity, but that didn't stop him for cause thousands of casualties in the Rune Knights, the Guilds, and the Fiore Army, he seems to like to test his foes, before he goes for the kill of the worthy ones...to be added to his collection".
"Collection?" asked Magnus.
"What D´mongo kills, gets forever slaved to him" explained Mavis with a somber tone "he uses the skulls of his victims, gluing them onto his body, and summoning them like they were Celestial spirits, but using the skulls as a substitute of keys".
Magnus low growl was more proper of a beast than a human being.
Part of his own cultural heritage, Magnus was not one ignorant of what slavery was.
In his own home dimension, his people had a category for slaves, they are called Thralls, but opposite to the cruel and denigrate image one could have about slaves being beaten and tortured for the amusement of those who own them; in Scandinavia, such stupidity was frowned upon.
A Thrall was a valuable propriety of the clan.
There was little space for foolishness in Scandinavia, each single one of the members of the clan is valuable, from the Jarl to the Thrall, each one has his purpose and duty, each one fills a role. Instead, slavery in Fiore was something completely different, it was more akin, to the slavery that he has seen in the worst parts of the Polis of Greece and that Roma thing that was starting to grow in the Mediterranean sea.
But that was not, what has made Magnus growl; what angered him was the fact, that D´mongo takes the souls of the fallen ones and prevents them to reach Valhalla, or whatever another warrior paradise they could find in the afterlife.
He will destroy D´mongo, what he was doing was the worst insult he could do to a soul.
Even if this was not his homeworld, Magnus faith in Valhalla; a place that he knew for certain that existed; was beyond any possible doubt, even if he hadn't still managed to explore the Otherworlds that Earthland posses; such as the Spirit realm; he was convinced that there must be a paradise and hell of some kind, among those places.
"D´mongo is mine" simply stated Magnus with a growl "I will rip the twisted soul of his fiendish body and destroy his very essence so no one could even try to recompose what would rest of him".
For a second, even Mavis had to suppress a shiver at the vehemence of Magnus, she was right about his deductions about how Magnus would find, D´mongos curse like magic, utterly despicable; however, this deep rage was not among her calculations. Not that it would not make Magnus even more determined to make D´mongo pay for their atrocities, it was only, that she didn't expect Magnus to hold such an anger over the issue. Mavis was a genius that you only see one in a thousand years; as soon as she met Magnus, just sensing his humongous magical power, she immediately knew he was not human, more akin to the giant race than to humans, and even then, Magnus overshadows the immense life force of a giant by far.
At the beginning, and considering that Mavis worst sin was her eternal curiosity, she spied a little the big man, fascinated for his strength; obviously not believing the excuse of enhancing magic, not even for a second; but soon she became friends with the man, friends enough to even invite him to Fairy Tail. Magnus was a very likable fellow; you only must understand that his deepest desire was to have a family, a place where he could belong; Mavis saw through his powerful facade, and understood that desire, not so different from her own when she founded Fairy Tail.
"I told ya" smiled Yury to Mavis, "I told you that Magnus was going to love the chance to hunt down D´mongo, as soon as he learns about his existence".
"Well, it was among my expectations but..." said Mavis.
"Anger" replied Warrod looking at Magnus "I didn't expect such a strong reaction from you, my friend, did you know about this D´mongo before?".
"The way he binds his victims into eternal slavery" Magnus clenched his hand and the tankard creaked under the pressure "that´s something that pisses me off, a lot".
Relaxing his fingers, although the tankard was already crunched, Magnus sighed and took rein of his emotions; D´mongos curse was something that hits too close to home for his tastes.
"I could understand if one sacrifices himself for another" said Magnus "I could tolerate if a soul is so devoted to his art, that used his own life force to achieve perfection, but never, ever, steals the souls of others, preventing them to reach Valhalla or even Hellheim for what it matters".
"Valhalla?, Helheim? what are those places?" thought Mavis on her mind, confused by the terms, Magnus has used, she had a vague idea of mythological places with that same names, she was sure, somewhere among the obliterated Red Lizard Guild library was a reference to those places, but she couldn't remember what exactly they were.
"Then, I take you are going to hunt him" ask Yury.
"Aye, lad, I am" nodded Magnus "just point me in the right direction".
Even if she agreed to the plan, Mavis had the creeping sensation, that she has done something that she was going to regret later, that this was going to be the last time, she was going to be bantering and playing around with the giant man. Mavis had a lot of those premonitions lately, she hated them, mostly because, they were mostly right. Something wrong was about to happen, and she would hate to lost another friend, to this stupid war, that idiot of Zeref created. If only he could see beyond his hate, beyond his misanthropic perception of the world, perhaps Zeref could find what he is so desperately looking for...but Zeref was lost in darkness, and it would be needed a strong light to force him to see the light.
Mavis wanted to be that light, she owned that much to the Dark wizard.